Decent Work and Economic Growth

A once-in-a-century crisis—a Great Disruption unleashed by a viral pandemic—hit the world economy in 2020. The pandemic spread like a forest fire reaching every corner of the world infecting more than 90 million and killing close to 2 million people worldwide. For several months uncertainties and panic paralysed most economic activities in both developed and developing economies. Trade and tourism came to a grinding halt while job and output losses exceeded levels seen in any previous crisis. In a matter of months the number of people living in poverty increased sharply while income and wealth inequality trended towards new highs.

The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2021 is a report produced by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).

This is the United Nations definitive report on the state of the world economy providing global and regional economic outlook for 2020 and 2021. A once-in-a-century crisis—a Great Disruption unleashed by a viral pandemic—hit the world economy in 2020. The pandemic spread like a forest fire reaching every corner of the world infecting more than 90 million and killing close to 2 million people worldwide. For several months uncertainties and panic paralysed most economic activities in both developed and developing economies. Trade and tourism came to a grinding halt while job and output losses exceeded levels seen in any previous crisis. In a matter of months the number of people living in poverty increased sharply while income and wealth inequality trended towards new highs. Governments around the world responded rapidly—and boldly—to stem the health and economic contagion of the crisis. Fiscal and monetary stimulus packages were quickly rolled out to save the economy. The crisis responses however entailed difficult choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods between speed of delivery and efficiency and between short-term costs and long-term impacts. Limited fiscal space and high levels of public debt constrained the ability of many developing countries to roll out sufficiently large stimulus packages. This report was produced by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs the five United Nations regional commissions the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development with contributions from the UN World Tourism Organization and other intergovernmental agencies.

Every person everywhere in the world has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Amidst untold suffering the process of producing a Human Development Report often appeared less urgent over the course of 2020. The Report team felt the need to document the unfolding and devastating impact of the pandemic on human development supporting UNDP’s response to the crisis. The well planned process of consultations and team meetings had to be scrapped or changed in unprecedented ways. This implied reinventing the Report’s typical production process. At many points it seemed that the Report simply could not be finished on time. Doing so was possible only because of the conviction that the Report had something important to say that speaks to this year’s crisis the obligation to honour 30 years of Human Development Reports and the encouragement generosity and contributions of so many recognized only imperfectly and partially in these acknowledgments.

The series “Commodities at a Glance” aims to collect present and disseminate accurate and relevant statistical information linked to international primary commodity markets in a clear concise and reader-friendly format.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and are not to be taken as the official views of the UNCTAD secretariat or its member States.