The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in the global economy, disrupting entire industries, eliminating millions of jobs, and creating more poverty worldwide, and may cause famines similar to those in the Torah stories.
This was mentioned in a report by the Washington Post published today, in which it monitored the ongoing economic turmoil and expectations of what might come next.
Economic outlook
In April, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the global economy will see a 3% decline this year, its biggest contraction since the Great Depression. Last week, the IMF revised those forecasts, saying that the global recession would be much worse than previously thought, and adjusted its forecast to 4.9%.
Justin Sandefor, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development said to the newspaper, that expectations can tell only part of the story, adding that they are still mostly dependent on expectations, not on real numbers.
Sandefor stressed that the evidence indicates - until now - that the effect in some places was really severe, but the picture of what is really going on needs years for it to be fully clear.
Economic turmoil and hunger
Last Monday, the World Food Program announced that it would significantly increase its food aid to serve up to 138 million people this year, with the number of hungry people increasing due to closures and job losses as a result of the epidemic, describing it as the largest number of people who are being hungry from hunger in one year since its establishment in 1961.
In April, the program's executive director, David Beasley, said that it might seem more difficult for people who face poor food security than HIV to be at home without cash or food, adding that within a few months the world may be exposed to multiple famines, of proportions. It is similar to the one that the Torah mentioned.
End the education of millions of girls
On the other hand, more than 1.5 billion children in the world were suspended from their studies by late March. A report from the "Malala Fund" expected last April to end this epidemic or severely delay secondary education for 10 million girls in the world, noting that studies found that the Ebola epidemic caused during the years 2014 and 2016 to leave large numbers of girls school without returning in West Africa.
Women's health organizations have warned that movement restrictions currently being imposed in the world could limit the ability of millions of women to access life-saving medical care and contraceptives, and this could have long-term effects on their financial resources.
Effects of travel and closure restrictions
Last March, airlines began cutting flights and ending the work of thousands of employees, some of which were completely closed, and experts are now trying to gauge the full impact of tourism losses on the global economy.
And the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development warned last Wednesday that the global tourism industry is on the way to losing at least $ 1.2 trillion due to the fallout from Corona, and if the state of travel continues as it is over the course of a full year, the losses may reach $ 3.3 trillion.
Millions of jobs are dependent on tourism, which is linked to sectors including food and entertainment. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development also warned of the loss of millions of jobs in the tourism sector and related sectors.
Devastating consequences
Countries dependent on tourism for critical income are at great risk from financial problems. In a report, the United Nations Development Program said that Jamaica, for example, would lose 11% of its GDP from losses in the tourism industry, even in the best scenario, and Thailand would lose 9%.
The report said that the global downturn in inbound tourism could have devastating economic consequences, because some developing countries rely heavily on tourism. In some countries - like many small island developing states - tourism accounts for more than half of GDP.
Economist Julian Jamison said in an article published earlier in the Washington Post - that strict closures will lead to varying losses for the most vulnerable, and that they involve a much higher human cost in the developing world, where the absence of social safety nets can make survival of Without work almost impossible.