Quarter of developing countries poorer than in 2019, World Bank finds

Market day at Dzaleka refugee camp in Dowa, Malawi, in 2019. The report found that many of the countries that had suffered a negative shock since then were in sub-Saharan Africa. Photograph: Angela Jimu/Majority World/Getty Images

A quarter of countries in the developing world are poorer than they were in 2019 before the Covid pandemic, the World Bank has found.

The Washington-based organisation said a large group of low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, had suffered a negative shock in the six years to the end of last year.