UN calls for $2.5 trillion virus rescue package

Monitoring Desk

UNITED NATIONS: The economic fallout from coronavirus pandemic is likely to get “much worse” before it gets better for some six billion people living in developing economies, the UN said on Monday, in an appeal for a $2.5 trillion rescue package to boost their resilience to further hardship.

According to new analysis from UNCTAD, the UN trade and development body, commodity-rich exporting countries will face a $2 trillion to $3 trillion drop in investment from overseas in the next two years.

An economic downturn in these emerging econ-omies was already evident in the last quarter of 2019 – before the new coronavirus outbreak emerged in central China last December, Richard Kozul-Wright, UNCTAD director of globalization and development strategies, said.