Myanmar set for 'extreme deprivation': UN Food Programme

Refugees cook food in a basic shelter at Farkawn quarantine camp in India's eastern state of Mizoram near the Myanmar border on Sept 24, 2021. - AFP

YANGON (Bloomberg): Myanmar’s Covid-19 outbreak has pushed more people into poverty, and the most vulnerable sections of the society may face "extreme deprivation” in the coming months, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

"We’re concerned that the cumulative impact is putting pressure on the most vulnerable segments of society,” the food agency’s Country Director Stephen Anderson said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Yvonne Man and Rishaad Salamat on Wednesday. "These are people who spend about 70% of their household income just to buy food and something has to give.”