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UN warns of more poverty caused by crisis
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-19 04:06

The United Nations warned on Friday that millions of people will be pushed into poverty if the current worldwide economic crisis persists.

In its latest report, entitled Voices of the Vulnerable: the Economic Crisis from the Ground Up, the world body said that the economic crisis is not over for hundreds of millions of people around the globe, despite the "green shoots" of recovery.

The "near poor" are in danger of becoming the "new poor," it warned.

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Because of the crisis, 100 million more people are likely to have been pushed below the poverty line, and global unemployment could also increase by up to 61 million between 2007 and 2009, it said.

Over the past year, there has been an increase of 100 million people suffering from hunger while infant mortality may increase by an additional 200,000 to 400,000 each year from now to 2015, if the crisis persists, according to the report.