UN chief calls for 'large-scale' coronavirus response of 10 percent of global GDPFox News, Apr 5, 2020, Adam Shaw, Ben Evansky
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week called for a “large-scale†international response to the global coronavirus crisis, consisting of 10 percent of global GDP -- and promising that the U.N. is “fully mobilized†to support such an effort.
“What is needed is a large-scale, coordinated and comprehensive multilateral response amounting to at least 10 percent of global GDP,†he said in remarks at the launch of a report on the socioeconomic impacts of the virus.
He called for fiscal and monetary policies that would support households, give health and unemployment insurance, social protection and support to businesses. He noted that a number of developed countries can implement such policies by themselves and are doing so already. The U.S. last week passed a $2 trillion stimulus package containing a number of such measures to support households and businesses through the crisis.
But Guterres said that countries in the developing world will need help, and pointed to the possibility of international bodies being the facilitator of such efforts.
“But we must massively increase the resources available to the developing world by expanding the capacity of the International Monetary Fund, namely through the issuance of special drawing rights, and the other international financial institutions to rapidly inject resources into the countries that need them,†he said.
He also suggested swaps among banks to bring liquidity to developing economies, as well as debt alleviation and interest waivers.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/un-coronavirus-response-gdp
