Educations ruined by Covid lockdowns will affect the world for years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned, as it said the outlook for the global economy is the “bleakest” it has been in decades.
The IMF warned that “scars from the pandemic, including to students’ learning and human capital formation, could weigh on economies for years to come”.
Global GDP is expected to grow by just 3pc per year in the immediate future, the economists said. That is well below the 3.9pc average seen over the period from 2000 to 2019, which included the global financial crisis and the underwhelming recovery from the credit crunch.
The IMF blamed disrupted education, a wave of retirement and sickness that has forced people out of the jobs market, and heightening global tensions that are breaking economic links between countries.
Other factors holding back growth include “slower than previously anticipated pace of structural reforms, lower projections for labour force growth, and increasing pressures from geoeconomic fragmentation”.
