Extreme poverty is set to rise this year for the first time in more than two decades, with coronavirus expected to push up to 115 million people into that category, the World Bank has said. The pandemic is compounding the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction, the bank said. By 2021, this could rise to as many as 150 million, it added. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.90 (£1.50) a day. The projected increase would be the first since 1998, when the Asian financial crisis shook the global economy. Before the pandemic struck, the extreme poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9% in 2020. But now it is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world’s population this year, according to the bank’s biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report.(BBC)…[+]