Report: 100 000 Albanians plunged into poverty after the 26 November earthquake

06/02/2020 16:32

The November 26 earthquake plunged nearly 100,000 people into the class of people suffering from profound material deprivation.

The data is made public in a damage assessment report conducted by a joint working group of experts from the Albanian government, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Deep material depravation denotes the situation when a family cannot afford at least 4 out of the 9 expenditure items considered vital to normal life.

These include paying rent, water bills, heating and other public utilities. The report states that before November the 26-th, the 7 municipalities most affected by the earthquake had 383 thousand materially deprived persons. After the earthquake this figure rose by 100 thousand more people, reaching a total of over 480 thousand. This was a result of business closures and other loss of income caused by the earthquake.

Furthermore, earthquake consequences have increased the level of subjective poverty by 26,000 people or 2.3 percentage points compared to 2018.
Experts point out that the economic impact of the earthquake on low-income families has been severe and these families may be plunged deeper into poverty if they are not supported by social policies.

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