Publication: Development Reversed: Poverty and Labor Markets in Myanmar
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2024-07-15
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2024-07-15
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The combined impacts of multiple negative shocks, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the February 2021 military coup, have brought poverty headcount, depth, and severity in Myanmar back to levels last seen in 2015. Poverty estimation exercises based on unofficial household survey data involve statistical uncertainties. However, trends in household well-being indicators studied in this report robustly point to a rise in poverty between 2017 and 2023. These trends underscore significant reversals from Myanmar’s experience of sustained poverty reduction until 2020, which was driven by fast economic growth and an expansion of its manufacturing and services sectors. While poverty has risen compared to the last six years and remains highest in rural areas, it has surged particularly rapidly in urban areas and among individuals with higher human capital endowments. The decline in living standards among urban households - especially those that belong to lower and middle-income families - has likely contributed to a reduction in inequality. Poverty estimates in this report are lower than other recently available estimates for Myanmar, largely due to methodological differences and the statistical uncertainties associated with such exercises. In urban areas, poverty has risen between 2017 and 2023, with a substantial decline in consumption among urban lower and middle-income households. The remaining report proceeds as follows: Chapter 1 provides the headline estimates of Myanmar’s poverty by location and household characteristics. Chapter 2 uses a labor market lens to understand the emerging trends in poverty. Technical details related to the updated methodology can be found in the Appendix 1. Appendix 2 provides key estimates of labor market indicators from MSPS at the subnational level.
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“Sinha Roy, Sutirtha; Van Der Weide, Roy. 2024. Development Reversed: Poverty and Labor Markets in Myanmar. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41869 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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