World Bank President: Virus Will Throw 50M Into 'Extreme Poverty'

At least 50 million people worldwide will fall into "extreme poverty" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with a recession coming that will hurt the world's poorest countries the worst, and the best thing to do is to get people back to work as soon as possible, World Bank President David Malpass warned Monday. 

"I'm afraid there's a deep recession," Malpass told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. "But as we think of what would be the best for the developing countries, the poorer countries, it would be a short time to recovery, trying to shorten the time to recovery for the advanced economies. And so that's a critical step, getting people back to work."

The World Bank in April approved a $1.9 billion funding program to help 25 of the world's poorest nations fight coronavirus, with the lion's share, $1 billion, going to India, followed by Pakistan, $200 million; Sri Lanka, $129 million; Afghanistan, $100 million, and Ethiopia, $83 million. At that time, Malpass said the World Bank could send up to $160 billion over the next 15 months. 

There is also a backsliding in terms of poverty and median income, said Malpass. 

Last Friday, the World Bank, based in Washington, pledged almost $133 million in pandemic bonds to be distributed to the world's poorest nations, but critics are questioning if the funding is coming too late, Bartiromo said.

"That was a program set up in 2016 and 2017 where the private sector is putting money into a trust fund which is run by the World Bank," said Malpass. "What we're trying to do going forward is have more straightforward funding opportunities or activities for the pandemic and for healthcare and also for vaccines."

Malpass said he also met last week with an alliance pushing toward the creating of a coronavirus vaccine, including President Emmanuel Macron of France and representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

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