“In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reversed the historic progress in poverty reduction in all regions, except Latin America and the Caribbean where governments used fiscal stimulus to alleviate economic hardship for low-income households. In the subsequent years, economic recovery occurred, though unevenly across countries and regions.

By now, global extreme poverty has returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, low- and lower-middle-income countries have been less resilient, facing additional shocks from inflationary pressures following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which slowed down their pace of economic recovery. The Middle East and North Africa region experienced the largest regression in extreme poverty over the past few years, even before COVID-19, primarily due to fragility in the region, compounded by a lack of consistent and recent data.”

From World Bank.