A Global Crisis Like No Other Needs a Global Response Like No Other

Kristalina Georgieva is the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)By Kristalina GeorgievaWASHINGTON DC, Apr 22 2020 (IPS) I have been saying for a while that this is a ‘crisis like no other.’ It is: • More complex, with interlinked shocks to our health and our economies that have brought our way of life to an-almost complete stop;   • More uncertain, as we are learning only gradually how to treat the novel virus, make containment most effective, and restart our economies; and   • Truly global. Pandemics don’t respect borders, neither do the economic shocks they cause. Credit: IMF The outlook is dire. We expect global economic activity to decline on a scale we have not seen since the Great Depression. This year 170 countries will see income per capita go down – only months ago we were projecting 160 economies to register positive per capita income growth. Actions taken Exceptional times call for exceptional action. In many ways, there has been a ‘response like no other’ from the IMF’s membership. Governments all over the world have taken unprecedented action to fight the pandemic—to save lives, to protect their societies and economies. Fiscal measures so far have amounted to about $8 trillion and central banks have undertaken massive (in some cases, unlimited) liquidity injections. For our part, the IMF has $1 trillion lending capacity – 4 times more than at the outset of the Global Financial Crisis—at the servic...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Civil Society Development & Aid Featured Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news