• BLOG SURF
AUGUST 02
The global economy is booming-or so it might seem. Global growth is surging again, only a year after COVID-19 triggered the deepest recession since World War II.
This year is likely to mark the strongest post-recession rebound in 80 years: global GDP is expected to expand 5.6 percent.
Growth in advanced economies is expected to reach 5.4 percent-the highest rate in nearly 50 years-powered by rapid vaccination and unprecedented fiscal- and monetary-policy support since the beginning of the pandemic.
Almost all advanced economies will go back to their pre-pandemic per-capita income levels in 2022.
In some parts of the world, clearly, the pandemic's damage is being repaired quickly.
Not so in the 74 countries eligible to borrow from the WB's IDA. These are the world's poorest: they account for roughly half of all people living on less than $1.90 a day.
For them, the global "recovery" is simply nowhere to be seen. In 2021, their growth will be the slowest in more than two decades (except for 2020), reversing years of progress in poverty reduction.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 3 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
