From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
New International Monetary Fund (IMF) research has shown that low-income countries need to deploy $200 billion over five years to fight the pandemic and another $250 billion to return to the path of catching up to higher income levels.
Speaking, while previewing the spring meeting, this year, Managing Director of IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, also noted that faster progress in ending the health crisis could add $9 trillion to global Gross Domestic Products (GDP) by 2025 and financial risks, including stretched asset valuations, should be watched.
“Emerging and developing countries with relatively weaker bankruptcy procedures would be more heavily affected by a wave of insolvencies
A co-ordinated green infrastructure push could boost global GDP by 0.7 per cent and create millions of jobs in the next 15 years
“Many tax systems need to be made more progressive to provide resources for better infrastructure and greater internet access,” she said, regretting that IMF financing to sub-Saharan Africa, last year, was 13 times more than the annual average over the previous decades.
According to her, economic expansion this year will be higher than the IMF’s January projections of 5.5 per cent whereas expansion in 2022 will equally be higher than the IMF’s prior forecast of 4.2 per cent.