The Daily Update: Global K-Shaped Recovery / Giving Up

We have written before about the prospect of a K shaped recovery where we focused on the diverging experiences of individuals and families dealing with the pandemic. As we now know many white-collar workers were able to work from home, to continue seamlessly with their jobs plus having the added benefit of reduced living costs. Others did not have such benefits or cash safety nets and as a result have been becoming more indebted just to make ends meet.

Along the same lines the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, warned earlier this month of a ‘dangerous divergence’ between developing countries and wealthy nations as they seek to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgieva said that strong growth in wealthy countries like the United States was ‘good news’ however, developing countries were being held back by slow vaccination rates.

At the Paris Peace Forum earlier this month where the heads of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank spoke she warned ‘There is danger for the coherence of growth and it is also a danger for global stability and security’. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO director-general also voiced similar concerns, warning of a ‘K-shaped recovery’ with regions like Africa and Latin America, that have lower vaccination rates, experiencing very slow growth.

Georgieva went on to call on the world’s 20 biggest economies (G20) to do more on dose-sharing, stating a G7 pledge to donate 1 billion doses was ‘not enough’, believing that those ‘haves’ need to ‘act more forcefully’ she said.

Lastly, ever thought was it all worth it ?? We have been looking into the hit rate of the dailies we send out. I have been in this business for more years than I care to remember, and the dailies I write are pulled from a broad range of subjects related to the investment industry.

On a quiet Friday a few weeks ago, I went off-piste and wrote about how avocados are very bad for the environment. No prizes for guessing which daily had the most hits over the last couple of months … I give up !!!