Global economy heading for weakest period of growth since 1990: IMF chief
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Apr, 2023 04:03 PM
Washington, April 6 (IANS) The global economy is heading for the weakest period of growth since 1990 as higher interest rates set by the world's top central banks drive up borrowing costs for households and businesses, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned, a media outlet reported.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF's managing director, said that a sharp slowdown in the world economy last year after the aftershocks of the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine would continue in 2023, and risked persisting for the next five years, The Guardian reported.
In a curtainraiser speech before the fund's spring meetings in Washington DC next week, she said that the global growth would remain about 3 per cent over the next five years - its lowest medium-term growth forecast since 1990.
"This makes it even harder to reduce poverty, heal the economic scars of the Covid crisis and provide new and better opportunities for all," Georgieva said.
In a downbeat assessment as the world grapples with the worst inflation shock in decades, she said economic activity was slowing across advanced economies in particular. While there was some momentum from developing nations - including China and India - low-income countries were also suffering from higher borrowing costs and falling demand for their exports, the media outlet reported.
Ahead of the IMF publishing revised economic forecasts next week, Georgieva said global growth in 2022 had collapsed by almost half since the initial rebound from the Covid pandemic in 2021, sliding from 6.1 per cent to 3.4 per cent. With high inflation, rising borrowing costs and mounting geopolitical tensions, she said global growth was on track to drop below 3 per cent in 2023 and remain weak for years to come.
As many as 90 per cent of advanced economies would experience a decline in their growth rate this year, she warned, with activity in the US and the eurozone hit by higher interest rates, it added.
Comparing the challenge to "climbing one 'great hill' after another", Georgieva said there were still more problems to overcome: "First was Covid, then Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inflation and a cost of living crisis that hit everyone."
"So far, we have proven to be resilient climbers. But the path ahead - and especially the path back to robust growth - is rough and foggy, and the ropes that hold us together may be weaker now than they were just a few years ago," she was quoted as saying by the media outlet.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency is developing an initiative for “fair access” to vaccines and treatments that it hopes will be ready within weeks. The mechanism was proposed shortly after Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the U.S. and other countries reported hundreds of monkeypox cases last month.
As of Friday, the U.S. had identified 45 cases in 15 states and the District of Columbia. More than 1,300 cases have been found in about 30 other countries outside the areas of Africa where the virus is endemic.
Officers responded to the Columbia Machine Inc. at around 2:30 p.m, where they found the four victims, the Washington County Sheriff's Office wrote in the latest press release. The suspect fled the scene prior to law enforcement's arrival. The suspect's vehicle was later encountered by Maryland State Police.
The initial mandate allowed those who were fully vaccinated to show proof of a negative test within three days of travel, while unvaccinated people had to present a test taken within one day of travel.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also rejected accusations that China had not fully cooperated with investigators, saying it welcomed a science-based probe but rejected any political manipulation.
In a report released Thursday, WHO’s expert group said “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists said the group would “remain open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
