PARIS: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sharply raised its 2021 global growth forecast on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) as the deployment of coronavirus vaccines and a huge US stimulus program greatly improved economic prospects. The Paris-based OECD says it now expects global gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 5.6 percent this year, a 1.4-percentage-point increase from its December forecast of 4.2 percent. The OECD now sees the US economy climbing by 6.5 percent this year, up 3.3 percentage points from its previous forecast. The OECD said the “top policy priority” is to deploy vaccines as quickly as possible throughout the world, save lives and speed up economic recovery. “The resources required to provide vaccines to lower-income countries are small compared with the gains from a stronger and faster global economic recovery,” the OECD said.

Source: Manila Times March 10, 2021 16:29 UTC