Poverty to rise in the wake of recent terror attacks - World Bank

Poverty to rise in the wake of recent terror attacks - World Bank

The 11 September terrorist attacks in the US were likely to hurt economic growth in developing countries worldwide in 2001 and 2002, condemning as many as 10 million more people to live in poverty next year, and hampering the fight against childhood diseases and malnutrition, the World Bank said in a preliminary economic assessment released on Monday.

"The worst hit area will be Africa, where in addition to the possible increases in poverty of 2-3 million people as a result of lower growth and incomes, a further 2 million people may be condemned to living below US $1 a day due to the affects of falling commodity prices," the Bank said in a statement.

It said that commodity prices in Africa were forecast to fall 7.4 percent on average this year, and were likely to fall even more as a result of the events of 11 September. "Farmers, rural labourers, and others tied to agriculture will bear a major portion of the burden," said the Bank. It added that travel and tourism which represented almost 10 percent of merchandise exports for the region were also likely to be disrupted.

"The 300 million poor in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable because most countries have little or no safety nets, and poor households have minimal savings to cushion bad times. About half the additional child deaths worldwide are likely to be in Africa," added the statement.

According to the Bank, before the events of 11 September it expected economic growth in developing countries to fall from 5.5 percent in 2000 to 2.9 percent in 2001 as a result of slowdowns in the US, Japan and Europe, and then rebound to 4.3 percent in 2002. "But because the attacks will delay the rich countries' recovery into 2002, the Bank now warns that developing countries' growth could be lower by 0.5-0.75 percentage points in 2002," the statement said.