Almost all G20 countries have experienced “three declines” (economic growth, per capita income, and trade growth) and “three increases” (unemployment rate, fiscal deficit rate, and inflation rate), writes Hu Angang, Economics professor at Tsinghua University, for valdaiclub.com. The rate of change will greatly exceed that of 2009 when international financial crisis occurred, and will drive the world into economic recession, or even worse, world economic depression.
The disease has spread to become a major pandemic
Since the initial outbreak in January this year, COVID-19 has spread around the world to become a pandemic. As such, it poses a threat to every individual across the globe.
During the incubation period of the epidemic, the world did not make sufficient preparations, nor did countries and regions fully utilize the window of opportunity offered by China in its fight against the disease in the early stage. Now, more than 200 countries and regions are at different stages of the outbreak. As the exponential growth in the cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths exceeds the coping capacity of existing medical resources, even the most developed countries are powerless, let alone the least developed countries.
Europe and the United States have become the largest centres of the pandemic, while southern regions such as Africa, Central America, and South America are still in the early stages of the outbreak. However, although southern countries currently account for less than 1/5 of the total number of confirmed cases, given their dense population, they may soon surpass Europe and the United States to become new centres of the disease. The world is confronted with an unprecedented common enemy. Unless international cooperation is facilitated, mankind may be dragged into a protracted battle, ranging from a year or two to a longer period of time. Among all countries, China has taken the most comprehensive, strict, and thorough measures in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 outbreak, and has done so in a timely manner. It took only two months to effectively control the rampant spread of the disease, and China has now entered the stage of normalized prevention and control.