The UN on Tuesday modified the calculations it had published in January, raising global growth figure from 4.7 to 5.4%, after a 3.6% downswing in 2020.
‘The stark difference in vaccination coverage among countries and the likelihood of a persistent pandemic pose a serious risk to an already uneven and fragile economic recovery worldwide,’ according to the UN Report on Global Economic Situation and Outlook for 2021.
The UN Report forecasts that developed economies will grow by 5% in this period, but the outlook is significantly less optimistic for Europe and Japan, which are currently struggling to contain new waves of coronavirus infections.
While East Asia is expected to experience a strong economic recovery from the pandemic, many nations in Africa, South Asia, West Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean face a fragile situation and uncertain economic prospects.
Despite of this, the report forecasts that developing countries´ economies will grow 6.1% in 2021 due to China’s strong economic recovery, expecting to reach up to 8.2%.
According to specialists, the pandemic has pushed 114.4 million people into abject poverty, of which 57.8 million are women and girls who have seen their jobs and income decrease, thus contributing to worsening inequality genre gap.
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