The impact of COVID-19 on regional poverty: Evidence from Latin America

In 2015 the United Nations implemented “the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which target to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure a fair and sustainable future by 2030.” The pandemic has directly or indirectly affected many sustainable development goals. It has led to falling behind the action calendar intended to be realized until 2030. One of these goals is to end poverty, which is the first sustainable development goal. Poverty estimates, which were already far from the target even in the pre-COVID-19 period, indicate that poverty will deepen with COVID-19. The economic and social disruption caused by COVID-19 has reached devastating dimensions given the wide range of economic consequences. It causes deterioration on people’s welfare levels, especially on the poor and vulnerable groups. In this context, the main purpose of the study is to examine the effects of COVID-19 on poverty in Latin America.