The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic to rise to more than $12.5 trillion in 2024, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the global lender, said on Thursday.
“The world economy will lose between now and 2024 some 12.5 trillion dollars, and we are going to revise that figure upwards due to the impact of Omicron,” Georgieva said during a speech at a digital round table organized by the Financial Times on the impact of vaccine nationalism on the global economy.
Georgieva said that supply chain disruptions, inflation and tighter monetary policies are “spewing cold water on the recovery everywhere.”
He added that the huge gaps in vaccination rates against Covid-19 and the growing overall gap between rich and poor caused by the pandemic, along with learning losses and increased gender impacts, would lead to more protests, tensions and unsafety.
According to Oxfam, the wealth of billionaires has grown more since the pandemic began than in the last 14 years.
“This dangerous divergence (between rich and poor countries) will have consequences for those states due to the increase in poverty, but also for global security” because it will increase protests, tensions and insecurity, assured the Bulgarian.
inequality affects
The impact of the pandemic on the poorest people is being felt in the loss of life as in some countries the poorest people have been almost four times more likely to die from the virus than the richest people.
Regarding the lack of access to vaccines against Covid-19 in poor countries, especially on the African Continent, Georgieva recalled that by the end of 2021, 86 countries had not reached the minimum goal of having 40% of the population vaccinated.
Oxfam data suggests that the death rate from Covid-19 in low- and middle-income countries is double that of rich countries.
valores@eleconomista.mx