Over half of Lebanon ‘trapped in poverty’ even before blast: UN

Lebanon's economic crisis doubled poverty rates to more than half the population even before this month's cataclysmic explosion at Beirut's port, a United Nations agency said Wednesday.

"Estimates reveal that more than 55 percent of the country's population is now trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities," the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said.

That figure for May 2020 was almost double the rate of 28 percent for last year, it said.

Extreme poverty had shot up to an estimated 23 percent of the population, up from eight percent in 2019, it added.

Lebanon's economic and political crisis deepened  on August 4 when a massive blast at Beirut's port killed 181 people, wounded thousands and ravaged huge areas of the capital.

The disaster came on the heels of the country's worst financial crunch in decades, which had already seen tens of thousands lose their jobs or much of their income, even as the novel coronavirus pandemic hit.