163 thousand Lebanese families under food poverty line

Citing a report recently published by the World Food Program (WFP), Al Akhbar newspaper revealed today that the poverty rate in Lebanon is expected to increase from 37% in 2019 to nearly 45% in 2020. About 22% of the population is likely to be hit by extreme poverty and food insecurity as compared to 16% during 2019. The newspaper went on to say, that these rates, based on World Bank studies, have produced shocking estimates that will become a reality to mark the exceptional year of 2020 with around 335,000 poor Lebanese households, including 163,000 families under the food poverty line, equivalent to some one million persons in a country of four million population. (Al Akhbar, June 2, 3, 2020)