TLTP
\nGENEVA
\nThe global economy will contract 4.3 percent this year due to the Covid-19 crisis, while a viable vaccine will not halt the spread of the economic damage, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
\nThe Geneva-based organisation said inequalities and vulnerabilities will worsen as the effects of the pandemic disrupt any progress made on poverty and other sustainable development goals. It also warned that the distribution of a viable vaccine is likely to expose long-entrenched inequalities in the global trading system.
\n\u201cThe Covid-19 pandemic has gravely wounded the world economy with serious consequences impacting all communities and individuals,\u201d said UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi.
\n\u201cMoving rapidly across borders, along the principal arteries of the global economy, the spread of the virus has benefited from the underlying interconnectedness \u2013 and frailties \u2013 of globalisation, catapulting a global health crisis into a global economic shock that has hit the most vulnerable the hardest.\u201d
\nWhile developed economies are expected to be more affected in 2020 than developing countries, with their gross domestic product contracting 5.8 per cent versus 2.1 per cent, UNCTAD said the United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 will be derailed unless immediate policy actions are taken.
\nThe recovery must also centre on renewed trade policies that tackle the twin challenge of market concentration and environmental impact, the report says, and global production networks must be more green, inclusive, and sustainable while simultaneously resetting the multilateral system, to support the most vulnerable and deliver on climate action.
\nSince the start of the outbreak in China last year, more than 1 million people have lost their lives, with uncertainty remaining about how and when the pandemic will run its course.
\nHowever, UNCTAD said the unprecedented economic shock generated by the global health emergency has already sharply exposed the global economy\u2019s pre-existing weaknesses, severely setting back development progress around the world.
\nIn 1990, the global poverty rate was 35.9 percent before falling to 8.6 per cent by 2018. However, it has inched up to 8.8 per cent this year and will likely rise throughout 2021. \u201cMillions of jobs have already been lost, millions of livelihoods are at risk, and an estimated additional 130 million people will be living in extreme poverty if the crisis persists,\u201d UNCTAD said.
\nThe Covid disruption has had real and disproportionate consequences on vulnerable and disadvantaged low-income households, migrants, workers in the informal sector and, often, women, UNCTAD said, with those working in the tourism and micro-enterprise sectors particularly affected.
\n\u201cEspecially in the developing world, many of these populations are not protected by social safety nets and yet are particularly affected by soaring unemployment,\u201d UNCTAD said.
\nThe report said about 79.4 percent of workers in sub-Saharan Africa and 84.5 per cent of workers in the world\u2019s least developed countries do not have access to any social protection or labour programmes.
\nThe report calls for international assistance to be stepped-up with debt relief offered to poorer nations to give them the fiscal space needed to address the economic effects of the pandemic on their populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP GENEVA The global economy will contract 4.3 percent this year due to the Covid-19 crisis, while a viable vaccine will not halt the spread of the economic damage, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The Geneva-based organisation said inequalities and vulnerabilities will worsen as the effects of the pandemic disrupt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n