Covid-19 has created ‘new poor’ in East Asia and Pacific, says World Bank report

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0 0 The Covid-19 shock is creating a class of ‘new poor’ across East Asia and the Pacific with 38 million more people expected to be living in poverty in 2020. That’s according to a new report from the World Bank titled ‘From Containment to Recovery’ that assesses the economic scarring caused by Covid-19 and prospects for recovery. A triple shock of the pandemic, the economic fallout from containment measures and the impact of the global recession means the region will grow only 0.9% this year, its weakest expansion since 1967 — and poverty will increase for the first time...