The planet must prepare itself for a full-size recession, according to forecasts announced Monday by the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, who spoke of economic headwinds ahead.
The heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and WTO issued a joint statement on 13 April urging coordinated action to help vulnerable countries address growing threats to food security. The proposed actions include providing emergency food supplies and deploying financial support to households and countries, facilitating unhindered trade, and investing in sustainable food production and nutrition security.
Following a strong rebound in 2021, the global economy is entering a pronounced slowdown amid fresh threats from COVID-19 variants and a rise in inflation, debt, and income inequality that could endanger the recovery in emerging and developing economies, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. Global growth is expected to decelerate markedly from 5.5% in 2021 to 4.1% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023 as pent-up demand dissipates and as fiscal and monetary support is unwound across the world.
The Group of 20 (G-20) nations are determined to continue doing everything possible to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, warning in a draft communiqué that the global economic recovery remains “uneven, highly uncertain, and subject to elevated downside risks”.
The World Bank on Tuesday said it has asked its board of directors to approve US$12 billion to help poor countries purchase and distribute eventual vaccines against COVID-19. The bank has already implemented emergency response programs in 111 countries and the extra money, if approved, would be aimed at low- and middle-income countries.
World Bank Group President David Malpass announced on Monday that Carmen Reinhart has been appointed as the new Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Reinhart’s appointment is effective on June 15, 2020.
The World Bank and IFC’s Boards of Directors approved an increased US$ 14 billion package of fast-track financing to assist companies and countries in their efforts to prevent, detect and respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19. The package will strengthen national systems for public health preparedness, including for disease containment, diagnosis, and treatment, and support the private sector.
The World Bank will revise its global growth forecast downwards due to the new coronavirus, the president of the multilateral lender said on Tuesday amid fears the epidemic in China will harm global supply chains.
A wave of debt in emerging and developing nations has grown faster and larger than in any period of the last five decades and could end with another crisis, the World Bank warned on Thursday.
The World Bank slashed its global growth forecasts for this year in a report released on Tuesday that portrayed a world gripped by deepening trade conflict, tumbling confidence and increasingly skittish investment. Although the global development lender currently expects a modest recovery 2020 and 2021, the bank said in its semi-annual report that a lot will have to go right for this to happen.