EUR 4.00 For Business Accounts Only

NSR H1 2021 Excerpts - Global - The Road to Recovery

Nigeria Strategy Report – H1 2021 Excerpts

Global Economy and Markets

• Over the next few days, we will feature excerpts from our core strategy document – The Nigeria Strategy Report. The report communicates  key happenings in global and domestic financial markets over H2 2020 and provides our stance on what we believe will be the major themes underpinning investor sentiment in 2021. We begin the series with a look at key happenings that dominated the global economic and financial landscape over H2 2020 as well as our outlook for FY 2021.
• Our H220 outlook painted a concise picture of a global economy ruffled to its core by the coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown measures imposed across the globe to mitigate the health crisis pushed most economies into a recessionary phase and left others in the doldrums. This edition gives insight into the impressive pace of recovery recorded by most nations post-lockdown, as the gradual reopening of economies triggered a return to relative normalcy. Advanced economies clawed back to their pre-pandemic levels, with Japan going one-step further to record growth in Q3. The emerging and developing economies weren’t too far behind, as we saw China defy the odds by avoiding a recession over the course of the year.
• Overall, fiscal and monetary authorities remained staunch in their efforts to provide adequate and much needed relief in the midst of the pandemic while governments either renewed or introduced fresh stimulus packages with hopes of avoiding a loss of recovered ground. Looking ahead, the approval and subsequent roll-out of vaccines across nations like the UK, US, Canada, Saudi-Arabia, et cetera. has raised optimism of a swift recovery in economic activities while a change at the helm of power in the US could possibly translate to a diffusion of existing tension between the world’s two largest economies. To crown things off, the EU and UK reached an eleventh-hour agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal, staving-off a divorce that would have had negative ripple-effects on both parties and financial markets across the globe. These combine to corroborate the IMF’s projection of a 5.2% growth rate in the global economy by the end 2021 (FY20: -4.4%YoY).