In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world bank has deployed more than $157 billion to survive the long-lasting impact of the Covid-19 on health, economy and social fronts over the past 15 months. This is the largest crisis response by the World Bank represents an increase of over 60% during the 15 months before the pandemic, the bank said on July 19.
“Since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank Group has committed or mobilised a record $157 billion in new financing, an unprecedented level of support for an unprecedented crisis,” stated World Bank Group President David Malpass, ensuring its assistance further. “We will continue to provide critical assistance to developing countries through this ongoing pandemic to help achieve a more broad-based economic recovery.
Read More: Why NRIs Are Considered A Boon To The Indian Economy?
The announcement of the financial support came a few days after the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took a similar decision and released financial support of $650 billion to help cope with the economically backward countries to combat Covid.
As per the Washington-based institution, financial assistance of $45.6 billion has been provided to nations from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), including drawing down IBRD’s $10 billion crisis buffer in addition to Board-approved sustainable annual lending limits.
Poorest countries from the International Development Association have been granted either zero or low-interest loans that amount to a total of $53.3 billion.
Global extreme poverty went up in 2020 for the first time in over two decades, with roughly 100 million people pushed into extreme poverty.
To help such countries to meet the increased financial requirements, the World Bank used all remaining IDA19 resources in FY21. IDA lender and borrower country representatives agreed to advance IDA20 in February 2021 by 12 months to continue surge financing in the future.
Considering last year’s Covid-19-related economic shrink, the global economy is predicted to expand 5.6% in 2021. However, the recovery is uneven so far because of the second wave of Covid-19. The World Bank foresees that around 90% of advanced economies are expected to revive their pre-pandemic per capita income levels by 2022. About one-third of emerging market and developing economies are anticipated to do the same.
