Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India [IMF Working Paper, April 2022]

Title:

Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India

 

Authors:

Surjit S Bhalla, Karan Bhasin & Arvind Virmani

Published:

IMF Working Paper, April 2022

Click here to read (pdf format)

Abstract:

The paper presents estimates of poverty [extreme poverty PPP$1.9 and PPP$3.2] and consumption inequality in India for each of the years 2004-5 through the pandemic year 2020-21. These estimates include, for the first time, the effect of in-kind food subsides on poverty and inequality. Extreme poverty was as low as 0.8 percent in the pre-pandemic year 2019, and food transfers were instrumental in ensuring that it remained at that low level in pandemic year 2020. Post-food subsidy inequality at .294 is now very close to its lowest level 0.284 observed in 1993/94.

 

International Monetary Fund (IMF) - World Economic Outlook Update, June 2020 - A Crisis Like No Other, An Uncertain Recovery

Title:
World Economic Outlook Update, June 2020 - A Crisis Like No Other, An Uncertain Recovery

Published:
International Monetary Fund (IMF), June 2020
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/06/24/WEOUpdateJune2020

From the article:
Global growth is projected at –4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast. In 2021 global growth is projected at 5.4 percent. Overall, this would leave 2021 GDP some 6½ percentage points lower than in the pre-COVID-19 projections of January 2020. The adverse impact on low-income households is particularly acute, imperiling the significant progress made in reducing extreme poverty in the world since the 1990s.

Note:
* The above-mentioned website includes the Latest World Economic Outlook Growth Projections for 2020 & 20121.

* The full report is in PDF format.