• A World Bank report warns that about 60 per cent of the people are at the edge of extreme poverty because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Extreme poverty is defined by the World Bank as being under 1.90 dollars (INR 143) a person a day.
• The economies of various countries have declined after the COVID-19 reached the planet. Millions have lost their jobs while companies around the world are shut down. Global economic growth could slip by as much as 5% this year, according to the World Bank.

World Bank President David Malpass says “Millions of lives have been destroyed and health systems are under pressure around the world. We estimate that up to 60 million people will get into extreme poverty – eradicating all the progress achieved in the past three years in alleviating poverty. The World Bank provides affordable loans to the developing people, so this global downturn could take the planet back several years. This could help us alleviate poverty through different programs. The global objective of sustainable development objectives can not be achieved by 2030.

Mr. Malpass said that the World Bank supports the developing countries with $160 billion in grants and loans at a low cost. In addition, 100 poor and needy countries with 70 percent of the world ‘s population have already provided emergency funding from the Bank, but that is not enough to cope with this catastrophic crisis. It takes the time to provide cheap credit to private players too, Mr Malpass says, “I’m slightly thwarted by the slow pace. Commercial creditors still receive payments, even from the poorest countries, and faster movement is necessary.

The most affected countries will be African and South Asian countries, and around 10 million people will be poor due to this crisis. Migrant employees worldwide have lost their livelihood when the pandemic starts operating in various sectors. As a result , global remittances and money sent home to families may dropped by about $100 billion this year, or 20 percent, according to the World Bank.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank formulate a plan together to enable poor countries to ask for debt relief on loans they owed to G20 countries. The plan includes a debt relief scheme.