Against the backdrop of longstanding fragility, exacerbated by 18 months of a protracted political, economic, social and institutional crisis, the pandemic is “stretching this country’s already fragile health system and testing its meager social safety net”, Special Representative and head of BINUH, Helen La Lime, said.

To cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, international cooperation and multilateral financial assistance is needed. However, the liquidity available is not enough to meet financing needs on a global level. That is why subregional development banks in Latin America should take bolder measures, since they play a critical role in this area of work, Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, indicated today at a high-level event organized by CAF - Development Bank of Latin America in the context of its 50th anniversary.

Enhancing the involvement of Latin American and Caribbean rural youth in the political, economic and productive spheres, in efforts to rebuild in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, is the aim of a series of virtual forums, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), beginning on June 12.

The forums will engage youth throughout the region, as part of IICA’s actions to assist in toppling barriers that are restricting this sector’s access to education, technology, employment, production resources, land ownerships and health services, to name a few.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty about the possibility of any economic recovery in the second half of the year,” says Pamela Coke-Hamilton, UNCTAD’s director of international trade.

“International trade is likely to remain below the levels observed in 2019,” she adds, “but how far depends on the pandemic’s evolution and the type and extent of the policies governments adopt as the try to restart their economies.”

La CEPAL propone dinamizar sectores claves para la infraestructura y la sostenibilidad de la vida. Uno de ellos es la economía del cuidado y otro, la potencialización de sectores bajos en emisiones de carbono, donde las mujeres debieran tener una participación muy activa, afirmó hoy Alicia Bárcena.

Durante su intervención, afirmó que, sin duda, la feminización de la pobreza es uno de los grandes temas de esta región. Y en estos tiempos de pandemia hay un impacto desproporcionado en las mujeres trabajadoras. Además, aseguró que en estos tiempos le preocupa que se vean mermados los presupuestos de las entidades de género.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the most severe recession in nearly a century and is causing enormous damage to people’s health, jobs and well-being, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

As restrictions begin to ease, the path to economic recovery remains highly uncertain and vulnerable to a second wave of infections. Strengthening healthcare systems and supporting people and businesses to help adapt to a post-COVID-19 world will be crucial, it says.

Economic activity among advanced economies is anticipated to shrink 7% in 2020 as domestic demand and supply, trade, and finance have been severely disrupted. Emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) are expected to shrink by 2.5% this year, their first contraction as a group in at least sixty years. Per capita incomes are expected to decline by 3.6%, which will tip millions of people into extreme poverty this year.

El Ministerio de Hacienda, a través de la Subsecretaría de Estado de Administración Financiera y la Dirección General de Presupuesto, elaboró el informe denominado “Paraguay ante la Pandemia”, completo compendio que pone a disposición de la toda la ciudadanía, cuyo objetivo es informar sobre las acciones adoptadas por el Gobierno Nacional en un escenario de crisis sanitaria, económica y social por el efecto del Covid-19.

This joint IMF-World Bank note provides a set of high-level recommendations that can guide national regulatory and supervisory responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and offers an overview of measures taken across jurisdictions to date.

FDI flows are expected to fall by more than 30% in 2020 even under the most optimistic scenario for the success of the public health and economic support policy measures taken by governments to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession. FDI flows to developing countries are expected to drop even more because sectors that have been severely impacted by the pandemic, including the primary and manufacturing sectors, account for a larger share of their FDI than in developed economies.

“The hardship of COVID-19 felt by migrants in the form of lost wages and employment – often without government safety nets – is a large part of this crisis in remittances. The decline also results from a host of issues caused by the coronavirus that impact the services migrants use to send money home – including the restrictions placed on remittance services providers and their agents. The loss of this crucial financing lifeline is devastating for both the migrant households and receiving countries,” said Judith Karl, Executive Secretary for UNCDF. “UNCDF, together with UNDP, is committed to supporting the Member State-led call to action and to ensuring that every measure is available to facilitate migrants in sending remittances home.”

In essence, the banking union is an exercise in risk diversification, achieved by pooling banking risks and regulatory controls among euro area countries. The strategy involved three interrelated lines of action: strengthening the solvency of banks; enhancing their efficiency; and fostering area-wide diversification and integration of the banking industry.

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is making available emergency loans to seven Caribbean countries, in the first instance, to finance the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a total of US$66.7 million for Antigua and Barbuda (US$13 million), Belize (US$15 million), Dominica (US$2.5 million), Grenada (US$5.9 million), Saint Lucia (US$10.8 million), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (US$11.3 million), and Suriname (US$8.2 million).

“The provision of support to the seven countries to respond to COVID-19 and keep critical government services and operations running is urgent to halt the economic decline and minimise social hardship, while giving focused attention to the most vulnerable people,” says CDB President Dr. Wm Warren Smith.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens education progress worldwide through two major shocks: the near-universal closing of schools at all levels and the economic recession sparked by pandemic-control measures, says The World Bank.

Para medir el pleno impacto de la crisis y proporcionar la base para las acciones necesarias, los economistas del BID han seguido de cerca los efectos de COVID-19 en la región. El resultado es un informe que arroja luz sobre las implicaciones económicas para seis países del Caribe: Las Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Surinam y Trinidad y Tobago. De este análisis surgen dos desafíos principales que deberán enfrentar los países en esta coyuntura.

We cannot predict when such liquidity shortages will happen. But we do know that when the global capital pipelines freeze up, a short-term liquidity problem can quickly slide into a deeper and longer-lasting solvency problem. A liquidity line that is available on demand can be a lifeline in such cases.

The IMF responded to this need by establishing a new facility last week called the Short-term Liquidity Line (SLL), the first addition to the IMF’s financing toolkit in almost ten years. As part of its broader crisis-response strategy, this new facility provides a reliable and renewable credit line, without ex post conditionality, to members with very strong fundamentals and policy frameworks—the same qualification criteria as another IMF facility called the Flexible Credit Line. The SLL is designed to address a special balance-of-payments need—potential, moderate, and short-term—reflected in capital account pressures following external shocks.

Este artículo de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) señala que, con independencia de la edad, el nivel de ingresos o el país, la emergencia en torno al COVID-19 está afectando a casi todos los habitantes del planeta. Sin embargo, es probable que la crisis económica golpee con especial dureza a los jóvenes. El artículo expone cinco factores determinantes.