#pandemic affect

Economy News Mercedes-Benz AG recently introduced its Maybach sport utility vehicle in India--right in the middle of a fierce second wave of the pandemic. The 50 cars the German automaker wanted to sell by the end of 2021 were lapped up in a month.

It turns out that just as the rich were scrambling to own these $400,000 wheels, annual per capita income was sliding below $2,000, with the country falling behind neighboring Bangladesh.

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Emerging economies have historically tolerated higher inequality, hoping to hit the inflection point in the Kuznets curve, beyond which incomes keep rising but disparities fall.

International News A day after the International Monetary Fund forecast a global growth of six per cent for this year, IMF Managing Director Christine Georgieva has said that after the worst global recession since the Second World War, the recovery is underway.

The outlook, she asserted, is brighter because millions of people are benefitting from vaccinations and because of further policy support, especially in the US.

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Georgieva said this is adding to the exceptional and coordinated actions taken over the past year.