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Economy

Coronavirus pushes 38m Asians below poverty line: World Bank

Tourism collapse and weak exports fuel rise of 'new COVID poor'

A Filipino family eats instant noodles, in a tent set up as a makeshift evacuation center, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Manila.   © Reuters

BANGKOK -- The East Asia and Pacific region faces a rapidly growing class of "new COVID poor" despite relative success in containing the pandemic, according to the World Bank.

Strict lockdown measures and external factors including the collapse of tourism and weak demand for the region's exports are sinking 38 million people below the poverty line of $5.50 a day and driving a 3.5% contraction in 2020 throughout 13 developing economies.

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