WORLD Bank Group President Mr David Malpass said against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality has been a "big challenge " for the political system.

In an interview with Axios on HBO, Mr Malpass, who was nominated by former US President Mr Donald Trump, said the pandemic has undercut reforms efforts and democratic mechanisms in developing countries, effectively destabilising them.

"Let's say you're a developing country that was making good progress, and then COVID hit…. They were cut off almost overnight from their banking relationships. We've tried to step into that vacuum, which will help keep people in jobs. The instability comes from people seeing that they're going backward not forward," he explained.

A proponent of reining in economic inequality, Mr Malpass said "strong" forces are at work to keep the status quo imbalanced.

"Central banks are buying bonds, which by definition, bonds are issued by people that already have money and they're bought by people that already have money. So the system is set up to stabilize the upper end… As interest rates went down and bond yields went down, that benefits people who are able to borrow for the long-term. There's not much going for people at the bottom end of the scale," he said.

"We've seen this growing, rising inequality... The reality of this is the inequality is really bearing down on the poorest people around the world… It seems like the system we currently have in place is not working," he added, referring to the centralisation of wealth within economies.

As the leader of one of the world's most powerful financial institutions, Mr Malpass said multilateral institutions can be useful in fighting the worst of the pandemic's impacts.

"I want to make international organisations work effectively together so we talk in terms of collaboration, cooperation with other other international organisations, and also with governments. What international organizations need to do is be very effective within their mission," he said.