Myanmar’s commercial hub gripped by poverty: UN report

Yangon residents boarding a boat to reach their homes across the river in July 2024 (Myanmar Now)

Once a thriving economic powerhouse, the city of Yangon is now facing “an unprecedented surge of poverty” amid the conflict and collapse that has wracked the country since the military coup of 2021, a new United Nations (UN) report says. 

According to the report, released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on June 3, more than 40 percent of Yangon’s 6.2 million inhabitants have fallen below the poverty line.  

“In 2017, ten percent of Yangon’s urban population was classified as poor. By 2023, this figure had increased to 43 percent,” the report notes. “With an increase in recent years, nearly 2.7 million people in Yangon are now living in poverty.”

The military overthrew an elected civilian government in 2021, destroying Myanmar’s nascent, 10-year-old democracy and plunging the country into economic turmoil with devastating consequences for its 54 million people.&nbsp. . .

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