From: Tropical Timber Market Report
News from the region over the past months shows that the timber industries are beginning to recover production however this disguises the challenges ahead in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo by Charl Fourie | Unsplash
The IMF has warned sub-Saharan Africa is in the grips of a third wave of Covid-19 infections, which threatens to be even more brutal than the two that came before. This is yet more evidence of a dangerous divergence in the global economy; one track for countries with good access to vaccines, where strong recoveries are taking hold, but another for countries still waiting and at risk of falling further behind.
IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva and IMF African Department Director Abebe Aemro Selassie writes: “The only way for the region to break free from this vicious pandemic cycle is to swiftly implement a widespread vaccination programme. Without significant, upfront, international assistance and without an effective region-wide vaccination effort the near-term future of subSaharan Africa will be one of repeated waves of infection which will exact an ever-increasing toll on the lives and livelihoods of the region’s most vulnerable while also paralyzing investment, productivity and growth. In short, without help the region risks being left further and further behind”.
See: Sub-Saharan Africa: We Need to Act Now – IMF Blog
Source: Tropical Timber Market Report
