Soaring prices: 70 million people plunged into poverty in three months


Soaring food and energy prices around the world have pushed 71 million people living in low-income countries into poverty since March and in just three months, says a report by the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) published on Thursday. This acceleration of poverty “is considerably faster than the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic”, notes the UNDP in a press release, which partly blames the war in Ukraine for the soaring prices, which Russia denies.

A risk of famine in many countries

According to the UN Programme, “targeted cash transfers to households are fairer and more cost effective than general energy subsidies”. The UNDP considers at the same time that the countries concerned will need support from the multilateral system “to make ends meet”. “As interest rates rise in response to soaring inflation, there is a risk of triggering new recession-induced poverty that will further exacerbate the crisis, accelerating and deepening poverty around the world,” warns also UNDP in its report.

The document looked at 159 countries. The States in the most critical situation are in the Balkans, in the Caspian Sea region and in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in the Sahel. “Unprecedented price spikes mean that for many people around the world, the food they could afford yesterday is no longer affordable today,” UNDP chief Achim Steiner said in a statement.

“This cost of living crisis is pushing millions of people into poverty” at the risk of “starvation at breathtaking speed”. At the same time, “the threat of an increase in social unrest is growing day by day,” he said. Among the countries facing the most dramatic consequences of rising prices are Armenia, Uzbekistan, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Haiti, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, l Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania or Yemen.



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