GENEVA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic will push 32 million people in least developed countries (LDCs) back into extreme poverty and push LDCs to their worst economic performance in 30 years in 2020, a United Nations report has said.
The pandemic will reverse years of painstaking progress in social fields such as poverty reduction, nutrition and education by the 47 LDCs, home to 1.06 billion people but account for less than 1.3 percent of global GDP, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report published Thursday on its website.
"This revision is expected to lead to a 2.6 percent reduction in per capita income in LDCs in 2020, with 43 out of 47 LDCs experiencing a fall in their average income levels," the report read.
The average poverty headcount ratio in LDCs with a poverty line of 1.9 U.S. dollars per day is expected to rise by 3 percentage points from 32.2 to 35.2 percent, it said.
Those living in extreme poverty in LDCs represent more than half of the global total. Enditem
