Global economic crisis not over yet, at least for the poor
- Source: Xinhua
- [09:57 September 19 2009]
- Comments
Despite "green shoots" of recovery, the world economic financial and economic crisis is still not over yet, at least for the millions of the most vulnerable who cannot make the ends meet everyday, the United Nations warned on Friday.
"The 'near poor' are becoming the 'new poor,'" UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters in New York at the launch of the Voices of the Vulnerable: the Economic Crisis from the Ground Up report.
The crisis, the worse of its kind since the 1930s, continues to push millions of people into poverty and is reversing some of the hard-won development gains of the past decade, the report said.
"Workers in both the formal and informal sectors are being badly hit, particularly in manufacturing, commerce and construction," said Migiro, before quoting one construction worker who said that the "monster" economic crisis is "devouring the poor. "
She added that migrants are finding their situation increasingly precarious, with forecasts predicting that remittances to developing countries will be reduced by over seven percent this year.
"Youth unemployment is dramatically increasing," Migiro stressed. "The number of unemployed youth has increased by as many as 18.2 million over the last year."
The report gave a sobering picture of how the crisis is affecting people and households around the world, and provided a realistic assessment of the social and economic impact of the current crisis and highlights key areas to watch.
Over the past year, the report said, there has been an increase of 100 million people suffering from hunger, while infant mortality may increase by an additional 200,000 to 400,000 each year from now to 2015, if the crisis persists.
"The global economic crisis is not 'over' as some have begun to predict, but rather it has just started for hundreds of millions of people around the globe," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in a message in the report.
"The first 'green shoots' of recovery must not blind us to clear signals that a new type of crisis is spreading throughout the developing world," Ban said.
"The near poor are in danger of becoming the new poor," the secretary-general said. "It is not the chronic poor who have been most affected by the crisis, but the near and working poor, whose lives had improved significantly over the previous decade."
"The clock is running out on the coping strategies of the vulnerable and poor," he stated.
The report warned that new red flags should be watched for because they may signal further trouble.
Policymakers need to watch for the further spread and evolution of the H1N1 influenza pandemic to countries already devastated by the economic crisis or the onset of new natural disasters that may be the last straw breaking the back of overstretched populations and governments, it said.
Migiro warned that the spread of the H1N1 influenza pandemic to countries already devastated by the economic crisis, or the onset of new natural disasters, are among the last straws that may " break the back of overstretched populations and governments."
The release of the report coincides with the start of the sixty- fourth session of the UN General Assembly in New York and precedes the meeting of the G-20, which is scheduled to take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
