Covid-19 briefing

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High uncertainty surrounds the International Monetary Fund’s outlook for the second half of 2021, and 2022, regarding the path of the pandemic, the effectiveness of policy support to provide a bridge to vaccine-powered normalisation, and the evolution of financial conditions.

Global trade has recovered faster than expected since the second half of 2020, but trade performance varies sharply from one region to another, and inequality in access to Covid-19 vaccines is one of the main reasons for these discrepancies, the head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said in a statement. 

The global economy is expected to grow by 6% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022 (from 6% and 4.4%, respectively, in April), according to the IMF.

The WTO expects the volume of merchandise trade to grow by 8% in 2021 and by 4% in 2022, after falling 5.3% in 2020.