The Day at a Glance | April 20 2021

The Top

*China and the United States will be growth drivers in 2021: Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Director.

*Oil prices on the rise after interruptions in Libya’s exports; the rise could be limited by growing COVID-19 cases at a worldwide level.

*The US Department of State will advise its citizens against traveling to countries where high rates of COVID-19 infection exist.

Economic environment

Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva warned of a divergence in global growth. The Boao Forum carried out yearly discussions between global and Asian leaders in Hainan, China; leaders discussed the most immediate threats to the global economy. This year, the biggest topics are regarding digital currencies, carbon emissions and the post-pandemic, global economic outlook. Georgieva assured that there is a dangerous divergence in the recovery seen among countries. While the United States and China recover firmly, other countries face important challenges to return to growth with deficient vaccine programs and a limited capacity to implement fiscal and monetary stimuli. Georgieva showed concern for the accelerated recovery seen in economies like the US and China – which will boost the worldwide recovery in 2021 – but will bring a sooner than expected normalization of monetary policies, which will affect the rest of the world. Additionally, she called for solidarity among countries in order to ease debt burdens for low income countries.