Myanmar’s commercial hub gripped by poverty: UN report

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.”