Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 11/2009

Mass poverty in Asia and the GFC

Peter McCawley

June 2009

Lowy Institute for International Policy

Abstract

In addition to the current Global Financial Crisis (GFC), there is a second global crisis: long-term poverty in the third world. While the rich world worries about a repeat of the Great Depression, today more than a billion people in Asia live in conditions of bitter poverty which are much worse than those of the 1930s. As a result of the GFC, poverty in developing Asia is now likely to increase. In a new Policy Brief, Peter McCawley argues that Australian economic diplomacy should place greater focus on the issue of mass poverty in Asia, and he emphasises the importance of strong economic growth as the best way to help Asia's poor.