World Economy Review - June 2021
RTS Index
The OECD raised its 2021 global GDP growth forecast but warned that “too many headwinds persist” as not enough COVID vaccines are reaching emerging economies, making the world vulnerable to variants. The world economy will expand by 5.8 percent this year, up from a previous estimate of 5.6 percent, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a report.
This follows a massive global recession last year that was caused by lockdowns and travel curbs imposed by governments to slow the spread of COVID-19. “It is with some relief that we can see the economic outlook brightening, but with some discomfort that it is doing so in a very uneven way,” OECD chief Laurence Boone said in the report.
The recovery is uneven so far, with the US and China returning to pre-pandemic levels and forecast to have much stronger growth than other major economies such as Japan and Germany. The 38-nation organization, whose members account for 60 percent of the global gross domestic product, applauded the rapid reaction of governments to prop up the economy.
“Never in a crisis has policy support - be it health, with the record speed of vaccine development, monetary, fiscal or financial - been so swift and effective,” Boone said. “Yet, too many headwinds persist,” she warned. Boone said it was “very disturbing” that not enough vaccines were reaching emerging and low-income economies. “This is exposing these economies to a fundamental threat because they have less policy capacity to support activity than advanced economies,” she said.
The...
The World Economy
World GDP Growth, %
The world economy can be evaluated in various ways, depending on the model used, and this valuation can then be represented in various ways (for example, in 2006 US dollars). It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of Earth, and is therefore somewhat of a misnomer, since, while definitions and representations of the "world economy" vary widely, they must at a minimum exclude any consideration of resources or value based outside of the Earth.
For example, while attempts could be made to calculate the value of currently unexploited mining opportunities in unclaimed territory in Antarctica, the same opportunities on Mars would not be considered a part of the world economy - even if currently exploited in some way - and could be considered of latent value only in the same way as uncreated intellectual property, such as a previously unconceived invention. Beyond the minimum standard of concerning value in production, use, and exchange on the planet Earth, definitions, representations, models, and valuations of the world economy vary widely.
It is common to limit questions of the world economy exclusively to Human economic activity, and the world economy is typically judged in monetary terms, even in cases in which there is no efficient market to help valuate certain goods or services, or in cases in which a lack of independent research or government cooperation makes establishing figures difficult. Typical examples are illegal drugs and prostitution, which by any standard are a part of the world economy, but for which there is by definition no legal market of any kind.