Output levels in India’s industries appear to be hitting a roadblock amid what the government described in the Union budget as “a general, strong recovery and economic recovery,” reflecting the country’s “strong resilience.” Factory production, as measured by the Industrial Production Index (IIP), fell for the fourth straight month to a 10-month low of 0.4% in December 2021 compared to the same month in 2020. While the Omicron variant was worrying until then was , its impact was limited to contact-intensive service sectors, with no restrictions on manufacturing activity. From nearly 13% year-over-year growth in August 2021, IIP growth has slowed each month — from 4.35% in September to 4% in October to just 4% each month — thanks to a low COVID-19 lockdown hit base 1.3% in November. It’s worth remembering that by September 2020, most of the lockdown restrictions that could have plagued factories had been eased, so perhaps some gaps in the workforce and the shock to confidence and demand were the only hiccups for production managers. Those hiccups were thought to be largely over after the deadly second wave subsided in 2021. If that were indeed the case, industrial production should have expanded more than the monthly average of just 2.5% over the last four months of 2021, especially when festive demand is at play. January’s GST surveys, which reflect activity in December, hit a new record may suggest all is well, but tax revenues are also being boosted by inflation and quarterly filing options for smaller taxpayers . In addition, GST receipts from imported goods have consistently increased faster than receipts from domestic transactions that involve imports of services. What makes the trend even more difficult to decipher is the volatility of the monthly IIP numbers — since August, the composite index has alternated between contracting and expanding each month, even as the year-on-year percentage growth has steadily collapsed.

The 2021-22 economic survey seemed to paint a different landscape, noting that an incipient recovery in private investment is likely to accelerate as corporate earnings and capital raising activities boom. “The expected surge in private consumption will drive capacity utilization, thereby boosting private investment,” it said, citing an RBI survey that signals rising investor optimism and expansion in output in the coming quarters. Economists believe the IIP data suggests the budget bet that public investment will catalyze a consumption- and investment-led recovery is shaky. Manufacturing actually contracted in December, with capital goods (which reflect investment activity) contracting a sharp 4.6% from 2020 levels and remaining below pre-pandemic levels. Consumer discretionary fell for the fourth straight month, while even consumer discretionary fell after a few months of sluggish growth. With high commodity costs restraining producers, consumers still in cautious mode and the threat of a sharp rise in fuel prices following the March 10 election results. That the central bank will remain in a growth accommodative mode as the world shifts gears to tackling inflation shows their concerns about the durability and quality of India’s recovery. The government urgently needs to restart its rosy assessment of the economy and recalibrate its approach so that ‘on paper’ optimism translates into smoking factory chimneys.

Nollywood actress Chioma Ifemeludike has claimed that the expensive and luxurious lifestyles of some Nigerian celebrities have pushed youths towards ritual killings. The actress stressed in a lengthy post on her Instagram page that unemployment has also significantly contributed to a high rate of ritual killings.

According to Chioma Ifemeludike, the expensive lifestyle of some Nigerian celebrities does not correlate with their income, adding that this directly/indirectly affects the youth.

She also noted that by hiring or employing youth, the government can control the evil.

In her words: “As much as I agree that unemployment has greatly caused the high rate of ritual and this nasty pandemic can be controlled if Nigerian youth are skillfully engaged or empowered, but the ‘quick money syndrome that fakes it until you get it creates ?? The expensive and luxurious lifestyle that does not correlate with your income, which you brag about as an entertainer, has also directly or indirectly influenced these young people.

“Let’s even talk about our musical content, the lyrics promoting some of the musicians put undue pressure on these children. Gone are the days when meaningful songs were written by the likes of Onyeka Onwenu, (later) Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, (later) legendary Fela Anikulapo kuti, etc. These were international award-winning musicians who took every opportunity to help impact society through their music to teach positively (some even after death), but today fast-forward lyrics like “If you’re not getting money, hide your face .

“Nollywood films have not necessarily encouraged ritual, but the problem here, in my opinion, is the narrative conveyed through these storylines that human blood (sacrifice) can cause money to rain down in a secret room or in a closet begins.

“Can human sacrifice really create wealth? and even if it does the same, Nollywood has shown the consequences and ramifications of taking another person’s life in many storylines. The short and long story here is, “A lazy man is the devil’s workshop”! The government urgently needs to engage and empower our youth.”

Source: Naija News

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) logo is seen at a subway station in Mumbai, India, January 31, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

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• The proposed stake sale would eclipse Paytm’s record $2.5 billion IPO
• LIC bid crucial to government’s privatization goal
• The company has more than $500 billion in assets under management

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has filed proposals with the Markets Regulator to sell 5% of its shares, potentially raising nearly $8 billion, the biggest IPO in Asia’s third largest. by far the largest economy.

The offer is critical to the Narendra Modi-led government’s efforts to meet its heavily reduced divestment target for the current fiscal year and will be a benchmark for the success of the government’s pro-market policies.

India’s largest insurer will sell 316.25 million shares, nearly 5% of the share capital paid up after the offering, according to the draft prospectus filed on Sunday.

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The government could raise just over 600 billion Indian rupees ($7.97 billion) from the issue instead of meeting the original plan of about 900 billion rupees after cutting the offering due to market conditions, a government source said.

The listing is expected to be completed by the end of March, the source added.

The filing also stated an embedded value of 5.39 trillion Indian rupees ($71.56 billion). Embedded value is a measure of future cash flows in life insurance companies and is an important financial metric for insurers.

The IPO is seen as a test of investors’ appetite for new offerings, as a number of companies that were listed last year amid concerns about high valuations and the threat of rate hikes from global central banks battling inflationary pressures are now trading below their asking prices.

The expected listing also comes as foreign investors withdraw funds from the domestic market.

The life insurance giant, which employed more than 105,000 full-time employees at the end of September and ranks itself among the top five insurers worldwide, has more than $500 billion in assets under management and holds more than 60% of India’s life insurance market by premiums.

Reuters graphics

LIC has more than 280 million policies in force and a Brand Finance report put the insurer’s brand value at $8.66 billion.

Although the downgrade of the government’s privatization target to $10.5 billion raised uncertainty about the size of the proposed LIC offering, government officials said investors should not assume that the revised target implies a lower-than-expected IPO for LIC suggests. Continue reading

India’s most recent life insurer IPO was in 2017 when HDFC Life Insurance (HDFL.NS) raised $1.3 billion. The share price has almost doubled since the listing.

Reuters graphics

LIC’s proposed offering will dwarf payments firm Paytm’s (PAYT.NS) record-breaking $2.5 billion IPO last year. Though Paytm’s IPO was the largest in the country at the time, shares have since fallen 58% from the offering price.

Indian companies raised a record $16.6 billion from initial share sales in 2021, up 52% ​​from the previous record high set in 2017, data from Refinitiv shows.

The LIC listing could make it one of India’s top five companies by market capitalization and energy along with telecoms group Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), software services company TCS (TCS.NS), HDFC Bank (HDBK.NS) and IT Connect Giant Infosys (INFY.NS).

PAST IPOS

State-owned companies that completed the last three largest IPOs of this type have lost more than half their market value since going public.

Coal India is trading at around Rs. 145 per share, a far cry from its stock market price of around Rs. 350 in 2010.

Similarly, state-owned insurers General Insurance Corp (GENA.NS) and New India Assurance (THEE.NS) are trading at just over Rs.135 per share, less than half their IPO prices.

Government officials told Reuters that India will be “very sensitive” in pricing the LIC share issue to ensure reasonable long-term returns. The price range will be set in the coming days and roadshows for potential investors will begin shortly.

Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Citigroup (CN), Axis Capital, Nomura (8604.T) and SBI Capital Market (SBI.NS) and five other banks are the IPO bookrunners, according to the draft papers.

($1 = 75.3188 Indian Rupees)

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Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru, Rupam Jain in Mumbai and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Goodman

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MOGADISHU, Somalia (`) — Under the hot sun, hungry women and children wait for food aid at a camp on the outskirts of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. They have walked for days fleeing the drought that is now ravaging much of rural Somalia.

Their growing ranks are expected to continue to swell in the coming months as the Horn of Africa region faces its worst drought conditions in a decade.

This week, the United Nations World Food Program warned that 13 million people in the region, including parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, will face severe hunger in the first quarter of 2022. Immediate assistance is needed to avoid a larger humanitarian crisis, the agency warned. The Horn of Africa has long been prone to drought and famine, often exacerbated by armed violence.

The Somali government declared a humanitarian emergency in November due to the drought, with the hardest-hit parts including the south-central areas of Lower Jubba, Geddo and Lower Shabelle regions.

“The impact on families has been felt more severely this season as multiple, protracted, rapid droughts, a deteriorating security situation, an infestation of desert locusts, rising food prices, lower remittances — and less money pledged from donors,” the Aid group Save the Children spoke of the drought in Somalia earlier this week.

A survey conducted in November in 15 of Somalia’s 18 regions found that “the majority of families now regularly go without meals,” a statement said.

In Somalia, 250,000 people died of hunger in 2011 when the UN declared famine in some parts of the country. Half of them were children.

WFP has said it needs US$327 million to address the immediate needs of 4.5 million people, including in Somalia, over the next six months.

Somali leaders have also tried to mobilize local support, and many have responded.

A task force set up by Prime Minister Mohamed Roble earlier this month is collecting and distributing donations from the business community and Somalis in the diaspora. Some of what they give feeds hundreds of families living in camps like Ontorley, where around 700 families live.

“There are not (many) humanitarian organizations working on the ground and these people are in dire need of support and assistance such as shelter, food, water and good sanitation,” said Abdullahi Osman, head of the non-profit Hormuud Salaam Foundation and a Prime member Minister’s Drought Task Force He needs more help for the thousands of families living in camps for displaced people.

According to camp director Nadiifa Hussein, around five to ten desperate families arrive at Ontorley camp every day.

Faduma Ali said she had trekked more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) to Mogadishu from her home in Saakov, a city in Middle Jubba province.

“The problems I’m facing are all due to the drought,” she told The Associated Press. “We had no water and our livestock had perished, and when I lost everything I walked along the road for seven days.”

Amina Osman, a visibly emaciated woman, also from Saakov, said two women who accompanied her on her journey to Mogadishu died of starvation on the way.

“We have encountered many hardships, including water and food shortages,” said the mother-of-four. “We hiked all the way from our village to this settlement. We were on the road for eight days.”

More patients with acute malnutrition are coming to Martino Hospital in Mogadishu, and some have died, director Dr. Abdirizaq Yusuf. Malnutrition patients are treated free of charge, he said.

“Due to the increasing cases of acute malnutrition, the hospital now employs specialist doctors and nutritionists to help those most affected,” he said.

This story has been corrected to show that the full name of the non-profit group is the Hormuud Salaam Foundation.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed or redistributed without permission.

A trader looks on near electronic boards showing stock market data at the Bahrain Stock Exchange after Joe Biden won the U.S. presidency November 8, 2020 in Manama, Bahrain. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

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February 13 (Reuters) – Most Gulf stock markets closed lower on Sunday, tracking Friday’s decline on Wall Street amid a standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Washington said Friday Russia had massed enough troops near Ukraine to launch a major invasion and urged US citizens to leave the country within 48 hours after Russia ramped up its response to Western diplomacy . Moscow denies invasion plans. Continue reading

The Saudi Arabian benchmark index (.TASI) led the losses, falling 2% for the biggest daily decline since late November, with stocks falling across the board.

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On Thursday, 12 people were wounded at Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport by shrapnel from a drone carrying explosives that was intercepted by air defenses, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi group said . Continue reading

The Houthis frequently use drones and rockets to attack Abha Airport, near the Yemeni border in southern Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the country. Most attacks are intercepted, but some people have been killed and several injured.

Elsewhere, oil giant Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) reversed early gains to finish down 0.7%.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has transferred 4% of shares in Saudi Aramco worth $80 billion to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the government said on Sunday. Continue reading

Sunday’s declines were driven 3% higher by escalating fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite crude oil prices, a catalyst for Gulf financial markets which closed at a seven-year high on Friday, adding to concerns over global crude stockpiles . Continue reading

The Qatari Index (.QSI) fell 1.3% with almost all stocks in negative territory including petrochemical maker Industries Qatar (IQCD.QA), which fell 1.9%.

Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue chip index (.EGX30) ended down 1.2%, while leading lender Commercial International Bank (COMI.CA) lost 0.7%.

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Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru Editing by David Goodman

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nick Griggs broke Niall Murphy’s 32-year-old Irish junior indoor record in the 3,000m

Nick Griggs continued the sensational form he showed last year when he broke the 32-year-old Ireland U20 indoor 3,000m record with a time of 7:57.38 in Dublin.

The 17-year-old from County Tyrone’s time beat Niall Murphy’s 1989 mark by 6.67 seconds.

Griggs finished the AAI games at Abbotstown almost 17 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Mitchell Byrne.

His time was over 10 seconds faster than his outdoor personal best.

This performance took place two weeks after his in France Outstanding 3,000 m triumph at the U20 European Championships in Estonia.

However, his trainer Mark Kirk told ` Sport Northern Ireland before Christmas he was confident Griggs would go under eight for the 3,000m in early 2022 and it proved it in Dublin.

Griggs’ time was also 4.10s quicker than Darragh McElhinney’s Ireland U20 outdoor mark in 2019.

The Newmills youngster was just 16 when he triumphed against a host of experienced athletes in Tallinn last July.

Griggs turned 17 a week before Christmas and judging by Saturday’s race looks set to be another great season for the Tyrone youngster, who notable six weeks after the tragic death of his beloved brother Josh while working at a summer job Showed resilience to win in Estonia.

Also at the Dublin meeting, Cork’s Phil Healy improved on her personal best indoor 400m with a time of 51.74 seconds, 0.16 seconds off Karen Shinkins’ Irish record set in 2002.

Healy’s time was 0.20 seconds faster than her previous personal best at last year’s European Indoor Championships when she was fourth, just out of the medals.

ARLINGTON – The Arlington Arts and Enrichment Program received a grant from the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing’s Regional Marketing Program, one of 22 organizations that received funding to support economic recovery by supporting regional efforts to increase attendance and tourism-related activities . The grants are designed to enable local, regional or statewide organizations to run campaigns and initiatives that increase consumer spending, support local businesses and advance community restoration efforts in the tourism sector.

“As the tourism sector continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to have resources in place to attract and welcome visitors to every corner of the state,” VDTM Commissioner Heather Pelham said in a press release, in who announced the $600,000 grant program. “The variety of projects and initiatives supported by these grants demonstrates both the breadth of tourism opportunities across the state and the unique character that each community has to offer. We look forward to bringing all of these creative projects to life.”

When allocating the funding, priority was given to projects that have the potential for long-term transformation effects; campaigns that reach underrepresented and new and diverse visitor communities; and projects that create assets that live on beyond the life of the grant. To enhance regional and national collaboration, new creative assets developed with this grant funding will be shared with VDTM for additional amplification and brand reach.

Awarded grant projects fell into five main categories: arts and culture events; development of creative resources and targeted marketing; digital and/or website upgrades; festivals; and itineraries and/or mapping projects. Example projects include:

The Arlington Arts and Enrichment Program received funding to host a multi-day Battenkill Fly and Film Festival in late April, centered around the International Fly-Fishing Film Festival and the opening week of the fly fishing season. Films shown at the newly created Arlington Common are complemented by “river supply packages” available at area restaurants, related events at local galleries and museums, and a series of independent car rides to enhance travel in the region support financially.

The City of South Burlington received funding to launch a new annual Winter Lights Festival featuring Vermont musicians, locally made crafts and food and drink gifts, and local grocers in partnership with regional arts organizations, the local hospitality industry, and civic organizations.

Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre received funding to support a year-long regional promotional campaign promoting the 2022 SPA exhibition program, which features the work of more than 380 small arts companies. Studio Place Arts will also be developing a two-week event to coincide with the 22nd annual Rock Solid stone sculpture exhibition during the busy fall tourism season.

Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports received funding to produce video and photo content highlighting accessible outdoor adventure and recreation in the Mad River Valley, Killington/Rutland area and Burlington Shore and Bike Trail.

The Vermont River Conservancy received funding to create an interactive map that includes information on over 50 swimming holes, dozens of boat docks, favorite fishing spots and paddle trails, and a series of six Spanish-language videos promoting Vermont’s waterways.

“We are very excited about the strong regional partnerships that have come together to make these collaborative projects successful,” said VDTM Commissioner Heather Pelham. “These partnerships will ensure that the Vermont tourism industry is more resilient now and in the future.”

All projects must be completed by March 1, 2023. A full list of recipients can be found on the grant program page at accd.vermont.gov. Funding for this program was allocated as part of Act 74 of the Vermont Legislature.

The most important headlines of the day and more.

The most important headlines of the day and more.

General Elections in Uttar Pradesh | set design for second phase; 586 candidates in battle

The election will take place on Monday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., the election office in Lucknow said.

General Elections in Uttar Pradesh | Chacha Shivpal champions nephew Akhilesh’s sarkar in UP

The Samajwadi party is trying to avoid splitting the Yadav vote and sending a message of unity to the core vote bank.

General elections in Punjab | Bhagwant Mann urges people to vote for A`, many in Dhuri call for change

After the Aam Aadmi party announced Mr Mann as their CM candidate, the Dhuri Assembly seat has shot into the limelight.

Assembly elections in Goa | Discounts galore to get people voting

As many as 301 candidates are running for elections in 40 state constituencies.

Over 70% of children in the 15-18 age group received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine: health ministers

Mansukh Mandaviya also appealed to all people in this age group who are eligible for vaccination to get vaccinated at the earliest.

The last batch of Rafale jets is due to arrive next week

All jets will be fitted with India-specific upgrades.

Prominent Sri Lankan lawmakers are calling for an “orderly renegotiation” of foreign debt to tackle the crisis

Seek “strong welfare policies” to protect poor families.

Saudi Arabia gives 4% of Aramco worth $80 billion in funding

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman’s confident son, made the decision to transfer the shares, the state media report said. It goes to the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, which was Prince Mohammed’s vehicle to invest in everything from Uber to British soccer team Newcastle United. The fund is also part of the Prince’s Neom project along the Red Sea coast.

SBI denies any effort to delay action against the ABG Shipyard Promoter in the ₹22,842 crore bank fraud case

The account was restructured by all lenders under the CDR mechanism in March 2014.

IPL Auction 2022 | Singaporean all-rounder Tim David was sold to Indians from Mumbai for ₹8.25 crore

Mumbai is getting a deadly pair in Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
These celebrities voted in his re-election

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (left) remains Federal President – ​​whether he also received a vote from drag queen Gloria Viagra remains a secret.

© getty/[EXTRACTED]: Emmanuele Contini / Getty Images / imago / Sven Simon

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was re-elected as Federal President. The most colorful vote this year was drag queen Gloria Viagra.

In the run-up to the election of the new Federal President, it was already clear that Frank-Walter Steinmeier (66) would hold the prestigious office for another five years. And so it happened on Sunday afternoon. Of the approximately 1,500 voters at the 17th Federal Assembly, 1,045 elected the old and the new Federal President – a clear victory ahead of their competitors Gerhard Trabert (65) and Max Otte (57).

In the election, which took place in the Paul-Löbe-Haus because of Corona, there were also well-known personalities outside of politics who had a vote. Without a doubt, the most striking appearance was made by drag queen Gloria Viagra (35), who appeared in a symbolic rainbow dress with a fiery red mane in the midst of the other attendees. In 2021, Michel Gosewitsch, whose real name is Viagra, ran for Die Linke for the Berlin House of Representatives. She was most likely to have competition from Reyhan Sahin (41) aka Lady Bitch Ray, who was also allowed to vote.

Actors, footballers, virologists

Many other stars of the entertainment industry came to the Paul-Löbe-Haus. Including moderator Klaas-Heufer Sweden (38), singer Roland Kaiser (69), comedian Dieter Nuhr (61), author Sophie Passmann (28) and actor Dietmar Bär (61), Marcus Mittermeier (52), Leonard Lansink (66) and Actress Fritzi Haberlandt (46).

The athletes consisted of Bayern star Leon Gorezka (27), Freiburg coach Christian Streich (56) and national coach Hansi Flick (56). The latter has followed in the footsteps of Jogi Löw (62) in the Federal Assembly, who was eligible to vote five years ago. And astronaut Alexander Gerst (45) and virologist Christian Drosten (49) also came. Likewise the doctor Carola Holzner (40), better known as Doc Caro.

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The ongoing global recovery faces several challenges as the pandemic enters its third year. The rapid spread of the Omicron variant has led to renewed restrictions on mobility and an increased shortage of workers in many countries.

Supply disruptions continue to weigh on economic activity and contribute to higher inflation, compounding pressure from strong demand and elevated food and energy prices. In addition, record levels of debt and rising inflation are limiting many countries’ ability to weather renewed disruption.

However, some challenges might be of shorter duration than others. The new variant appears to be associated with less severe disease than the delta variant, and the record spike in infections is expected to decline relatively quickly.

The latest World Economic Outlook from the IMF therefore assumes that while Omicron will weigh on activity in the first quarter of 2022, this effect will start to wear off from the second quarter.

Other challenges and policy pivots are expected to have a greater impact on the outlook. We forecast global growth of 4.4 percent this year, down 0.5 percentage points from previously forecast, mainly due to downgrades for the United States and China.

In the case of the United States, this reflects reduced prospects for passage of the Build Back Better tax package, an earlier rollback of extraordinary monetary accommodation, and ongoing supply disruptions.

China’s downgrade reflects continued contraction in the property sector and a weaker-than-expected recovery in private consumption. Delivery interruptions have also led to discounts for other countries such as Germany.

We expect global growth to slow to 3.8 percent in 2023. This is 0.2 percentage points higher than the October 2021 WEO and broadly reflects a recovery after the current brakes on growth have eased.

We have revised upwards our inflation forecasts for 2022 for both advanced and emerging and developing markets, with expectations that elevated price pressures will persist for longer. Supply-demand imbalances are expected to narrow throughout 2022 based on industry expectations of improved supply as demand gradually rebalances from goods to services and extraordinary policy support is withdrawn.

In addition, according to futures markets, energy and food prices are likely to rise at more moderate rates in 2022. Therefore, assuming that inflation expectations remain anchored, inflation is expected to moderate in 2023. Even if the recovery continues, worrying disparities in prospects between countries persist. While advanced economies are expected to return to pre-pandemic trends this year, several emerging and developing economies are expected to experience significant output contractions over the medium term.

The number of people living in extreme poverty was estimated to be around 70 million above pre-pandemic trends in 2021, setting back progress on poverty reduction by several years.

The forecast is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and the risks are pointing downwards overall. The emergence of deadlier variants could prolong the crisis.

China’s zero-Covid strategy could exacerbate global supply disruptions, and if the financial strain in the country’s real estate sector spreads to the economy in general, the impact would be widespread.

Higher inflation surprises in the United States could prompt aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve and severely tighten global financial conditions. Rising geopolitical tensions and social unrest also pose risks to the outlook.

Breaking the hold of the pandemic is crucial to addressing many of the difficulties facing the global economy.

Global Efforts

Breaking the hold of the pandemic is crucial to addressing many of the difficulties facing the global economy. This requires a global effort to ensure widespread vaccination, testing and access to therapeutics, including newly developed antiviral drugs.

Currently, only 4 percent of the population in low-income countries is fully vaccinated, compared to 70 percent in high-income countries. In addition to ensuring a predictable supply of vaccines for low-income developing countries, support should be provided to increase absorption capacity and improve health infrastructure.

There is an urgent need to close the $23.4 billion funding gap for the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and incentivize technology transfers to diversify global production of critical medical tools, particularly in Africa, to speed up.

At the national level, policy should continue to be tailored to country-specific circumstances, including the extent of the recovery, underlying inflationary pressures and the policy space available.

Both fiscal and monetary policy must work together to achieve economic goals. Given the high level of uncertainty, policymakers must also remain agile and adapt to incoming economic data.

With policy space constrained in many economies and strong recovery underway in others, fiscal deficits are expected to narrow in most countries this year.

The budget priority should remain the health sector and transfers should be effectively targeted where necessary to those most affected.

All initiatives must be embedded in a medium-term fiscal framework that provides a credible path to ensure that public debt remains sustainable.

Monetary policy is at a critical juncture in most countries. Where inflation is broad-based alongside a strong recovery, as in the United States, or high inflation is at risk of becoming entrenched, as in some emerging, developing and advanced economies, extraordinary monetary policy support should be withdrawn.

Several central banks have already started raising interest rates to forestall price pressures. It is crucial to communicate the policy transition to a tighter stance well to ensure an orderly market response.

Where core inflationary pressures remain subdued and the recovery remains incomplete, monetary policy can remain accommodative.

As monetary policy tightens across the board this year, economies will need to adjust to a higher interest rate environment globally. Emerging and developing countries with large foreign currency borrowing and external financing needs should prepare for potential financial turmoil by extending debt maturities as much as possible and curbing currency mismatches.

Exchange rate flexibility can help with the necessary macroeconomic adjustment. In some cases, foreign exchange intervention and temporary measures to control capital flows may be necessary to give monetary policy the leeway to focus on domestic conditions.

As interest rates rise, low-income countries, 60 percent of which are already in a debt crisis or at high risk of a debt crisis, are finding it increasingly difficult to service their debt.

The G20 Common Framework needs to be revised to accelerate results on the debt restructuring, and G20 and private creditors should suspend debt servicing while the restructuring is negotiated.

As the pandemic enters its third year, the global death toll has risen to 5.5 million deaths, and the associated economic losses are expected to total nearly $13.8 trillion by 2024, compared to pre-pandemic projections .

These numbers would have been far worse were it not for the extraordinary work of scientists, the medical community, and the swift and aggressive policy responses around the world.

However, there is still work to be done to ensure losses are contained and to narrow the wide disparities in recovery prospects across countries. Policy initiatives are needed to reverse the large learning losses suffered by children, particularly in developing countries. On average, students in middle- and low-income countries had 93 days more nationwide school closures than students in high-income countries.

On climate, a bigger push is needed to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with carbon pricing mechanisms, green infrastructure investments, research subsidies and funding initiatives to enable all countries to invest in mitigation and adaptation actions.

The last two years confirm once again that this crisis and the ongoing recovery is like no other. Policymakers must closely monitor a wide range of incoming economic data, prepare for contingencies and be ready to communicate and implement policy changes at short notice.

In parallel, bold and effective international cooperation should ensure that the world escapes the grip of the pandemic this year.