Global growth prospects have improved against the backdrop of rapid vaccination rollouts in a few large economies. Following a sharp contraction of 3.6 per cent in 2020, the global economy is now projected to expand by 5.4 per cent in 2021. While the world economy is treading towards a recovery, the pandemic is far from over for a majority of countries. Daily new infections were higher in April 2021 than the number of new infections reported daily during the peak of the pandemic in December 2020. The stark disparity in vaccination  coverage between countries and regions poses a serious risk of an uneven and fragile  recovery of the world economy. Timely and universal access to COVID-19 vaccinations will remain a key tool for beating the pandemic and putting the world economy on the path of an inclusive and resilient recovery. 

Robust growth in the United States and China has improved prospects for a global recovery, but this will unlikely be sufficient to lift the rest of the world’s economies. The economic  outlook for the countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the  Caribbean remains fragile and uncertain. With the risks of a prolonged pandemic and  insufficient fiscal space to stimulate demand, the world’s most vulnerable countries are  facing the prospect of a lost decade. For many developing countries, economic output is only projected to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 or 2023.