Since the September 22 meeting of the Central Bank of Lesotho’s (CBL’s)Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to take
its toll on the world, unleashing devastating human and economic suffering. While progress attained in November towards a vaccine bodes well for growth in the
medium term, the global economic downturn in the wake of the virus remains severe and broad based across all economic sectors, affecting advanced,emerging as well as developing economies. A return to pre-pandemic levels of economic growth is likely to take a number of years. The most recent global growth forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)1 expect global growth to contract by 4.4 per cent in 2020 compared to an earlier projection of 4.9 per cent in June 2020 . Similarly, growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to decline by 3.0 per cent in 2020 relative to June 2020 projection of 3.2 per cent.
