The recent nationwide closure of all economic activities for two-and-a-half months has doubled extreme poverty in Bangladesh, raising the number of the country’s ultra-poor from 10.5 per cent of the population to 20.5 per cent as of June, according to the Planning Commission (PC). Similarly, the commission, operating under the guidance of the planning ministry, estimated that the incidence of poverty increased from 20.5 per cent to 29.4 per cent as a considerable number of people lost their income due to the coronavirus fallout. “There were already many poor people in the past and the pandemic has only worsened their situation,” said Shamsul Alam, a member of the PC’s General Economics Division, yesterday. The depth of poverty has increased because of income shrinkages as many working in the informal sector lost their jobs, he added.
The recent nationwide closure of all economic activities for two-and-a-half months has doubled extreme poverty in Bangladesh, raising the number of the country’s ultra-poor from 10.5 per cent of the population to 20.5 per cent as of June, according to the Planning Commission (PC). Similarly, the commission, operating under the guidance of the planning ministry, estimated that the incidence of poverty increased from 20.5 per cent to 29.4 per cent as a considerable number of people lost their income due to the coronavirus fallout. “There were already many poor people in the past and the pandemic has only worsened their situation,” said Shamsul Alam, a member of the PC’s General Economics Division, yesterday. The depth of poverty has increased because of income shrinkages as many working in the informal sector lost their jobs, he added.