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Capital Markets

World economies crumble as Covid19 hits hard

By : Kofi Kafui Sampson on 26 May 2020, 10:30

Covid

As a result of the pandemic, the global economy (according to the International Monitory Fund (IMF)) is projected to contract by –3 percent in 2020, worse than during the 2008–2009 financial crisis.

Bloomberg estimates that Covid-19 could cost the world economy some 2.7 trillion dollars.

Even with government and citizens rushing to opening up economies to reduce the COVID-19, the resulting behavior change means demand will not recover immediately.

Africa, according to recent data from Databank Research, is expected to enter a recession in 2020.

Growth across the continent is expected to be negative.

Mr. Courage Martey of the Databank Research explains that the three biggest economies in Africa, South Africa, Nigeria, and Angola will shrink, due to their dependence on oil and mineral commodities whose demands have crashed on the world market.

Media report from South African suggests with the continuous lockdown, the country’s economy could shrink as much as negative 16 percent.

Ghana, however is expected to still record a positive growth though at a slow rate.

Ghana’s estimated GDP growth is set to plummet from a target of 6.8% to about 2.6% in 2020.

Auditing firm KPMG estimates that the worse case GDP growth could be 1.5 percent

Though this might be some positive news is by no means Ghana’s best times.

The three sectors of the economy, industry, service, and agriculture sectors will contract considerably.

A crush of the world commodity prices due to the shock of the coronavirus means the country’s trade in cocoa, gold, and oil would contribute significantly to the drop in government foreign earning, revenue, and consequently the nation’s GDP.

Even with the government opening the economy quickly to safeguard the economy from further decline, the service sector which is about 57 percent of the GDP is shrinking considerably.

According to the executive secretary for the Ghana Tourism Federation, Mr. Emmanuel Frimpong, revealed in a media interview that over eight hundred thousand (800,000) jobs were lost in the hospitality sector.

Manager of Just Freddies, Mr. Freddie Quatey, understands this job loses more.

The government is yet to release data on the nation’s unemployment.

The industrial second largest sector of the economy which contributes 24 percent of the GDP is also expected to shrink largely due to the disruption in petroleum productions.

However, KPMG the country could see local production and manufacturing as a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government has announced several measures to reduce the effect of the pandemic on the economy.

Things are still developing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ghana’s case count as reached over five thousand.

If cases continue to increase this could mean a large portion of the workforce is being quarantined for at least three weeks.

If cases are not contained sooner, experts warn that productivity could safer more.

The World Health Organization cautions that Covid-19 could stay with us even longer.