The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed concerns that though the global economy will continue to grow until the end of 2021, rising to 5.9% by year end, but that the lingering COVID-19 pandemic still portends great risks to sustainability of the growth trajectories of the various economies.
The Fund, in its latest research document, projected that global GDP growth rates would be 0.1% lower than its earlier forecast in July 2021.
However, the IMF experts in the latest report left the institution’s forecast for 2022 unchanged; projecting that the world GDP growth is still expected to be 4.9%.
The experts adduced a variety of reasons for the slowdown in the growth rate of global GDP.
For instance, they observed that most of the economies were adversely affected by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic just as delivery chains have suffered due to measures assumed by most governments in the world to control the spread of infection.
Another factor noted in the document was that the pandemic still poses a significant risk to the health of residents in developing countries, thereby undermining their productive potential
The IMF predicted that in a number of countries around the world there would be an increase in production efficiency, which will not always be associated with an increase in the number of jobs.
According to experts, countries engaging in raw materials export will find themselves in a more advantageous position due to the high prices of raw materials.
From the documentary analysis, the IMF believes that after 2022, the growth rate of world GDP will drop to 3.3%.
The analysts also believe that accelerated vaccination of the world population should play a priority role for the stable growth of the world economy.
To ensure sustained recovery of the global economy, the IMF experts recommend that is necessary to vaccinate about 40% of the world’s population by the end of 2021, the IMF document says.
It would be recalled that the IMF Board approved $650 billion to assist vulnerable countries to tackle the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
