The global population living in extreme poverty is predicted to have increased in recent months. The main driving factor is the wave of inflation that has occurred in many countries since March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This is recorded in the report *Addressing the Cost-of-Living Crisis in Developing Countries*, released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday (7/7/2022).
Until October 2021, the global extreme poverty population was estimated to be around 623.8 million people.
However, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, followed by rising food and energy prices, the number of people living in extreme poverty is now predicted to have increased to 675.4 million.
"We project that the current cost-of-living crisis has already pushed more than 51 million people into extreme poverty," the UNDP wrote in its report.
According to the World Bank, extreme poverty is a condition where a person has an income of less than US$1.90/day.
This upper limit of extreme poverty is equivalent to Rp28,400/day or Rp854,000/month (assuming an exchange rate of Rp14,984 per US$).
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The UNDP assesses that Indonesia is among the countries severely impacted by the wave of inflation, so its extreme poverty is estimated to have reached 2.94% of the total national population.
In response to this problem, the UNDP encourages countries to design social assistance with targeted cash transfer schemes for poor groups.
The UNDP considers this scheme better than blanket subsidies that can be enjoyed by people from all income groups.
"We find that targeted cash transfers are more effective at reducing poverty, fairer than subsidies, and more fiscally efficient," the UNDP wrote in its report.
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