The World Bank announced today, Wednesday, that the Coronavirus pandemic may push up to 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021, erasing the progress made over more than 3 years to reduce poverty.

In a biennial report on poverty and shared well-being, the bank said that between 88 million and 115 million more people will fall into extreme poverty - living on less than $ 1.90 a day - in 2020.

The report indicated that this number may increase to between 111 million and 150 million by the end of 2021, and the World Bank's forecast in April was in the range of 40-60 million people.

This means that between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world's population will live in extreme poverty this year, with little change to the 2017 rate of 9.2%. 2021, before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The report said that the goal of reducing the ratio to 3% by 2030 will not be within reach unless urgent and concrete policy measures are taken.

The report stated that the crisis threatens large losses of human capital among already disadvantaged people, making it difficult for countries to return to inclusive growth even after severe shocks subside.

"The pandemic and global recession may cause more than 1.4% of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty," World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement, describing it as a "serious setback for the path of development and poverty reduction."

According to the report, many of the newcomers to the extreme poverty bracket live in countries that already suffer from high poverty rates, but about 82% come from middle-income countries, where the poverty line is at $ 3.20 a day for the lower bracket of middle-income countries, and 5. $ 50 a day for upper-middle-income countries.