For the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Develoment Programme (UNDP), this would increase the poverty rate from 32.5 to 35.7 percent.
Both institutions are warning about the Covid-19 cost, especially in less developed countries with scarce financial and institutional means to respond to this type of emergencies, apart from having over 50 percent of the world population living in extreme poverty conditions. The most pessimist projection indicates that 80 percent of the economic crisis caused by the spread of that disease would persist for 10 years, due to productivity loss, with strong limitations to return to the development course before the pandemic.
UN data show that the 47 least developed countries make up less than 1.3 percent of world GDP, despite being home to 1.06 billion people.
According to UNCTAD, in 2020, those countries will have their worst economic performance in 30 years, with their income plummeting, widespread job losses and ever larger fiscal deficits, which will reverse years of progress in the reduction of poverty, nutrition, and education.
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