Health

OECD warns of pandemic inequalities amid slowing recovery

Paris, Dec 1 (EFE).- The global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is continuing but has lost momentum and is becoming more and more imbalanced, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its latest outlook published on Wednesday.

“The failure to ensure rapid and effective vaccination everywhere is proving costly with uncertainty remaining high due to the continued emergence of new variants of the virus”, the OECD said.

In its Economic Outlook report the OECD lowered its global growth forecast for 2021 by 0.2% to 5.6% and projected growth to be 4.5% in 2022, “before settling back to 3.2% in 2023, close to the rates seen prior to the pandemic.”

The resurgence in activity registered earlier this year is losing momentum due to an inability to meet surging demand caused by bottlenecks in production chains, the OECD said.

Labor shortages, closures related to the pandemic, rising energy costs and scarcity of some basic materials are also contributing factors to the slower than forecast growth.

The OECD also highlighted vaccine inequality as a major risk to the global economic recovery, as illustrated by the recent emergence of the Omicron variant, which highlights the need to ensure “better access to vaccines for all must be an urgent policy priority.”

“A faster, better coordinated, worldwide vaccine roll-out is not only essential for saving lives and preventing the emergence of new variants, but would also help tackle some of the bottlenecks undermining the strength of the recovery by allowing factories, ports and borders to re-open fully,” the OECD said.EFE

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