SINGAPORE: Myanmar’s bank offices are closed and government employees are boycotting work. Factory workers have fled to their rural homes and foreign companies have relocated their employees abroad. The internet is largely cut off.
More than two months after the military seized power in a coup and unleashed a deadly campaign to crack down on protests, the economy is collapsing, with the World Bank and others expecting a contraction of two digits throughout this year. The convulsion is erasing the huge gains the country had made in reducing poverty and scaring away foreign businesses and tourists who had done much to lift Myanmar over the past decade.
It is already one of the poorest countries in Asia. Six million people live on less than $ 3.20 a day, a poverty line for low-income countries like Myanmar. A quarter of the nation’s children are too young for their age due to inadequate nutrition.
There is a reason for this: for half a century, Myanmar was ruled by military generals who enacted disastrous policies. The picture began to change constantly over the last decade as a democratic opening brought a partially civilian government to power and generated more international investment. On the one hand, poverty fell to 24.8% in 2017 from 42.2% in 2010, according to World Bank data.
The progress of the last decade is being reversed. Following the coup, which overthrew an elected government, the World Bank says the number of people living on less than $ 3.20 is expected to increase by 30% in 2021. That is 1.8 million additional poor in a year.