(VOVWORLD) - The coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.
According to the report, about 203 million people, or 5.2% of developing Asia's population, lived in extreme poverty — defined as living on less than 1.9 USD a day — as of 2017. Without COVID-19, that number would have declined to an estimated 2.6% in 2020. Assuming that the pandemic has increased inequality, the report warned further the relative rise in extreme poverty may be even greater.
Only about 25% of Asia- Pacific economies recorded growth in 2020.