Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
By Landing Ceesay
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) said the Covid-19 pandemic has turned economies upside down.
“The title of the October 2021 REO- One Planet, Two Worlds, Three Stories, is quite apt for the current state of the world given global developments since the pandemic outbreak. Over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has been at the forefront of all discussions about global, regional and national economies. The pandemic turned economies upside down, revising initial positive growth prospects to negative figures. And as the spread of the virus raged on, projections were frequently revised as it brought unknown and unpredictable factors on board,” Mr Abdoulie Jallow said.
Jallow said one thing the pandemic has made even more evident is how interconnected the globe is and how global challenges require global solutions.
“We have one planet. However, the pandemic has divided the planet into two worlds with a projected recovery in global growth. Advanced economies are expected to grow by more than 5 per cent in 2022. However, growth for Sub-Saharan Africa is projected at 3.8 per cent much lower than the rest of the world, further widening income disparities. Advanced economies are forecasted to return to their pre-crisis growth path by 2023. On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Africa is not expected to return to pre-pandemic growth levels anytime soon, and would have to grow twice as fast over the next three years to match the recovery of advanced economies,” he said.
The MoFEA PS informed that the pandemic coupled with the effects of climate change has exacerbated the economic divergence among the world’s economies, which he said has been further aggravated by the large disparities in vaccine access.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Permanent Secretary made these remarks at the launch ceremony of the IMF’s October Regional Economic Outlook (REO) for Sub-Saharan Africa held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre on Thursday.