COVID-19 to Erode More than $12.5 Trillion from Global Economy – IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday has predicted that COVID-19 will erode more than $12.5 trillion previously estimated from the global economy through 2024. 

Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director, IMF, disclosed this while speaking at an event hosted by the Financial Times. She explained that among things hindering economic recovery or “throwing cold water on the recovery everywhere”, were supply chain disruptions, inflation and tighter monetary policy.

Looking at the surge in oil prices over the high demands outweighing the low supply from the OPEC+ nations; flight disruptions due to the peaking number of reported Omicron variant cases and inflations of global commodities, the initial estimate of global revenue loss valued at $12.5 trillion is said to rise.

Georgieva also noted that the huge gaps in COVID-19 vaccination rates, the overall widening divergence between rich and poor caused by the pandemic, along with learning losses and increased gender impacts, would cause more protests, tensions and insecurity.

The IMF boss’s statement had been confirmed by the international lender’s Chief Economist, Gita Gopinath in December 2021. According to Gopinath, IMF had projected that a more severe COVID variant, such as Omicron, could cost the world’s economy $5.3 trillion. This was in addition to the then projected loss of $12.5 trillion.

Speaking at an event organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in December. Gopinath described the Omicron variant as “an obvious hit to recoveries everywhere in the world.”

“Our projections are that that would add another loss of around $5.3 trillion to the global economy. So that is in addition to the current projected $12.5 trillion lost.

“We are now in the phase where countries around the world just don’t have the space to keep monetary policy very loose, to kind of keep interest rates extremely low. We are seeing inflationary pressures building up around the world,” she said.

“And so think of a situation where you could have this pandemic last longer, you have longer supply disruptions that are putting inflationary pressures, and then we have the real risk of something we have avoided so far, which is stagflationary concerns,” Gopinath added.