115 million people expected to fall into extreme poverty – World Bank

The World Bank says extreme poverty is set to rise this year for the first time in more than two decades, with coronavirus expected to push up to 115 million people into that category.

The Bank says the pandemic is compounding the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction.

It adds by 2021, this could rise to as many as 150 million.

Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than USD $1.90 a day.

The projected increase would be the first since 1998 when the Asian financial crisis shook the global economy.

Before the pandemic struck, the extreme poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9% in 2020.

But now it is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world's population this year.

[Source: BBC]