Malpass said the crisis in Ukraine and the COVID-19 lockdown measures in China are causing global growth to slow down and are increasing poverty rates. People are facing reduced commercial activities while debt crisis and currency devaluation are becoming a burden on the poor, he said.

Malpass expressed concern about the difficulties facing developing countries including rising prices of energy, fertilizer, and food, as well as the possibility of interest rate increases in the near future.

Malpass said the World Bank was responding to the added economic stresses from the war by proposing a new, 15-month crisis financing target of 170 billion USD to cover April 2022 through June 2023, with a goal to commit about 50 billion USD of this financing over the next three months.