Global Recession Reverses 20-Year Trend of Decreasing Poverty

The current global recession will undo a 20-year trend of fewer and fewer people living in abject poverty, according to the World Bank's Year in Review 2008 report. The reversal is due to high food costs and sluggish growth, which has caused the poverty rate to increase by about 1.5 percent this year in urban parts of East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

Forecasts indicate that strong growth may return to some developing countries by 2010, but not quickly enough for the millions currently hungry and unemployed.