The coronavirus pandemic has led to the worst economic crisis in a century. This was stated by UN Secretary General António Guterres during his speech at the Davos Agenda event. His speech is available on the official website of the organization.
He recalled that more than two million people have died due to the spread of the infection around the world. “We are in the worst economic crisis in about 100 years. We see this in the inequalities between people and countries, which the pandemic has highlighted. (…) We also see the instability of the climate and biodiversity crises,” Guterres stated.
According to the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects report, the global economy contracted by 4.3 percent in 2020, more than two and a half times more than during the 2009 global financial crisis.
At the same time, according to the UN Secretary General, in 2021 the world has a unique opportunity to “move from fragility to resilience” when recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires, inter alia, that governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society work together.
Earlier, the World Bank predicted a new crisis for the world due to the coronavirus pandemic that broke out in 2020. The infection has already triggered a global recession, and now may be the cause of the financial crisis.