Estimates of the poverty impact of the current crisis are becoming numerous and varied. Global estimates of poverty impacts are based on assumptions regarding Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth deceleration and the relationship between GDP growth and poverty. We take a different approach. We ask what do we know from research on the poverty impacts of previous financial crises in developing countries? We review current global estimates on poverty and then draw evidence from nine developing countries that have experienced a crisis episode since the mid 1990s.