Covid-19 briefing

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Although recent vaccine approvals have raised hopes of a turnaround in the pandemic, renewed waves and new variants of the virus pose concerns for the global outlook. 

The prospects for recovery in global services trade remain poor due to renewed lockdowns and tightened restrictions on travel and related services into Q1 of 2021.

Amid this uncertainty, the IMF has projected the global economy to grow by 5.5% in 2021 and 4.2% in 2022 (against -3.5% for 2020).

In Q3 of 2020, global services trade fell 24% (against Q3 in 2019), according to the WTO. This represents a small uptick from the 30% YoY decline in Q2, in contrast to the much stronger rebound in goods trade.