International Monetary Fund’s Gita Gopinath on Tuesday stated that delays in Covid-19 vaccinations remain the top risk facing the global economy. In order to eradicate or at least to mitigate the problem, she presented a strategy to make inoculation of poor people a top priority.
Addressing her audience during a virtual conference organized by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, she stated that “The fact that there is this big gap in access to vaccinations is a big problem,”. Gita Gopinath in her session brought to light a key issue of vaccine diplomacy which puts poorer nations at a disadvantageous position due to their low bargaining power.
IMF’s Gita Gopinath, speaking at the Fund’s annual general meeting, emphatically called on rich countries to help the poor nations access the shots. She solemnly stated that achieving widespread vaccinations should be “the absolute number-one priority.” for nations.
Updated Global Economic Outlook last week had predicted that the global economy would expand by a humongous six percent in the FY 2021 and by 4.4 percent in 2022. It is to be noted that both the figures were higher than its previous estimates. Additionally, the monetary fund body had also estimated India’s economy to record a growth rate of 6.9% in 2022, a rate 10 basis points higher than its earlier projection.
The forecast also had suggested that India would again become the fastest-growing economy in the world. In fact, the forecast had gone on to project that India will be the only country among major world economies that will grow at a double-digit rate during FY22. But such claims were refuted by many experts and rating agencies like Care Ratings which themselves scaled down their growth projections for India.
Moving along the lines, IMF too warned, that uncertainty remains over its projections, and growth could accelerate or decelerate depending on whether the vaccination rollout moves faster than expected or slower if they lag behind.
The IMF has stressed that investments in vaccines more than pay for themselves when economies are able to reopen, but lamented on the fact that vaccine distribution in poorer countries was “deeply iniquitous” as rich nations sweep up most of the supply.
But it is to be noted that vaccination positivity or the number of people willing to get inoculated is steeply coming down as extensive research on vaccines are bringing out diabolical contrasting reports.
Recently formation of blood clots was found in people that were inoculated with AstraZeneca. Similarly, US health authorities called for a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine over blood clot fears. The vaccination campaigns have accelerated globally since the start of the year, but is facing obstacles.