Global economic recovery from Covid pandemic is fragile and patchy

The global economy has achieved only a fragile recovery from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and many emerging economies are still suffering severe hardship.

Growth in the world's largest economies has been uneven according to the index, which highlights the precarious outlook that will form the backdrop for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank this week.With a second wave of coronavirus undermining efforts to return to normal, businesses', householdsand investors' confidence shaken and little scope for additional monetary policy stimulus, most countries have a long way to go before output reaches pre-pandemic levels.

“A broad and robust recovery is not on the horizon,” said Professor Eswar Prasad of the Brookings Institution, adding that “the risks of substantial and lasting scarring effects on economies are increasing.”

Meetings will be held virtually from Washington this week. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said last week that the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis would be “long, uneven and uncertain.” And prone to setbacks.

Economic data around the world is weaker than the worst point of any previous slowdown since the Brookings-FT Tracking Index for Global Economic Recovery (Tiger) began in 2012.

The index compares indicators of real activity, financial markets and confidence with their historical averages for the global economy and for individual countries, capturing how normal the data for the current period is.

He showed that the recovery in advanced economies is far from complete after a historic fall in the spring, and that the situation in emerging markets is much worse with indicators still far from normal levels.