Reuters- The global economy is set to grow by 4.7 % this year, beating a previous prediction, thanks to a stronger-than-expected recovery in the United States, a United Nations report said on Thursday (March 18).
The upwards revision from 4.3 % in September factors in an expected boost in U.S. consumer spending on the back of progress distributing COVID-19 vaccines and a vast stimulus package, the report said.
“We’ve raised our forecast across the board for the global economy and its constituent part. A lot of that, of course, has to do with the United States”, UNCTAD director of the division on globalization and development strategies, Richard Kozul-Wright told Geneva’s reporters.
Nelson Barbosa, professor of economics at the university of Brasilia who took part in the report, warned that “even with the current recovery, pulled most by China and the US, the world economy will still be 5 percent below the level that it would have had if there was no pandemic. So, this means that the crisis is still very serious, the recovery is not over.”
The report estimates that last year there was a 3.9 % drop in output as the spread of the new coronavirus sparked lockdowns across the world.
“We call 2020 ‘annus horribilis’ and it might have been more horribilis than it actually turned out to be. Largely, because there were significant government interventions”, said Kozul-Wright.
However, he raised concerned on multilateralism failure during G20, inequality regarding vaccines distribution and inequalities that have worsened during the pandemic.
