MANILA, Reuters – In 2021 the pandemic displaced 4.7 million people from Southeast Asia’s poorest regions, reversing progress made in fighting poverty. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), said Wednesday that it had seen rise in deaths and urged governments to increase economic growth.

In a report, the ADB stated that 24.3million people lived in extreme poverty, which is defined as living on less than $1.90 per day. That’s 3.7% of Southeast Asia’s total population of 650,000,000.

The number of those living in extreme poverty in Southeast Asia was decreasing before the epidemic. It reached 14.9 millions in 2019 from 18 million in 2018, and 21.2million by 2017.

Masatsugu Aakawa, president of ADB said that “the pandemic led to widespread poverty and worsening inequality and rising poverty levels, particularly among older workers and women in Southeast Asia.”

Asakawa called on governments to strengthen their health system, reduce regulations in order to increase business competition, and invest smartly in green infrastructure. He also urged them to adopt technology to accelerate growth.

According to the ADB, there are 9.3 Million fewer workers in Southeast Asia by 2021 due to COVID-19’s economic curbs. This has left millions of people without jobs.

The Southeast Asia growth prediction for 2021 was 3.0%.

Although the region is expected to grow by 5.1% in 2019, the Omicron COVID-19 variation could reduce its potential growth prospects by up to 0.8 percentage points, if spread further and triggers demand and supply shocks, according the ADB.

It was not possible to include the economic effects of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine into 2022.

This conflict forced Asia’s policymakers into rethinking their assumptions about 2022. The risks of low growth and surging prices have added complexity to the monetary planning plans.