Currency Depreciations Risk Intensifying Food, Energy Crisis in Developing EconomiesFood Security: Latest Update – October 17, 2022

Setting standards: Why updating poverty lines matters in East Asia

East Asia prides itself on rapid economic progress over the past few decades with millionsuntitled_design.jpg lifted out of poverty. Between 2008 and 2018, real per capita GDP in the region grew at an average rate of 6.7 percent per year, significantly above the global average of 1.5 percent. Yet the extent of progress on poverty is exaggerated by the fact that poverty thresholds are set too low compared to other countries at similar income levels. This leads to policies which do not do justice to the scale of the problem. New numbers released by the World Bank using global benchmarks underscore this point. 

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Food Security: Latest Update – October 17, 2022

Domestic food price inflation remains high around the world. Information between May todownload September 2022 shows high inflation in almost all low-income and middle-income countries; 88.9% of low-income countries, 91.1% of lower-middle-income countries, and 96% of upper-middle-income countries have seen inflation levels above 5%, with many experiencing double-digit inflation. The share of high-income countries with high food price inflation has risen to 85.7%.

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Correcting course to accelerate poverty reduction

On End Poverty Day this year, it’s hard to find cause for celebration.  The COVID19mari_blog_october_17_1140x500.jpeg pandemic triggered a historic setback, pushing 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020 – the largest one-year increase in three decades.  The war in Ukraine deepened the global economic slowdown, which is now in its steepest decline following a post-recession recovery since 1970. At this rate, nearly 7 percent of the world’s population – almost 600 million people – will still be struggling in extreme poverty in 2030.   

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Remarks by World Bank Group President David Malpass at the Launch of IDA20 in Tokyo, Japan

 

Hello everyone and let me start by expressing my appreciation to you and the Japanese government for hosting us for this launch of the IDA20 replenishment, in which Japan has played such a leadership role. I would like to thank the Finance Minister personally for playing such a crucial part in this process. I would also like to thank and congratulate the colleagues gathered here in Tokyo today, coming from all over the world, for making IDA20 a successful replenishment.

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Latin America isn’t at risk of a 1980s-style crisis (but an era of missed opportunities looms)

Food lines that stretch across multiple city blocks. Spiraling unemployment. Out-of-control inflation. Unsustainable debt. These issues, which traumatized many economies across Latin American in the 1980s, continue to reverberate today and,brazil_hero.jpg given current economic conditions, you could be forgiven for fearing that history is about to repeat itself.

However, the region’s biggest risk at present is not another “lost decade” fueled by financial crises, but rather a decade of missed opportunities. 

The debt crises of the 1970s and 1980s were searing experiences that find an echo in today’s troubles. Then, as now, Latin American countries had large debt loads. Then, as now, the global economy experienced unique macroeconomic shocks that sent inflation soaring (the Arab oil embargo then; the pandemic and Ukraine war now). And then, as now, central banks around the world – especially the US Federal Reserve – were raising rates to fight inflation.

 

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After the pandemic, put women first

 

From education to entrepreneurship, global recovery efforts need to pay shutterstock_1835789131particular attention to the needs of women and girls. 

Policymakers haven’t always considered how economic shocks impact women and men differently — or how governments should respond.  When the 2008 recession hit, few asked how stimulus measures would affect women compared with men.

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Prevent the next food crisis now

 

Firms and workers continue to be deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as it enters its dominic_chavez_ifc_rwanda_2019 eleventh month. Building on insights from COVID-19 Business Pulse Surveys, the first blog post in this series described the implications of the crisis for firm sales, employment, and financial performance, while the second discussed record levels of uncertainty and firms’ coping strategies, including adoption of digital technology. This third and final part of the series focuses on public policy responses.

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Prevent the next food crisis now

 
 

The toxic cocktail of climate change, conflict, and COVID-19 is making itself felt most intensely 20200520_indonesia_covid19_15_1in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries.  As a result, a record 235 million people worldwide will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021 – an increase of 40% from last year.

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