Since the November 24 meeting of the Central Bank of Lesotho’s (CBL’s) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to pose serious
risks to global public health and economic growth. Progress attained in November towards a vaccine coupled with the subsequent vaccine rollouts in December in much of the developed world bodes well for growth in the medium term. However, the global economic downturn in light of the virus remains severe, especially following the discovery of new and possibly more transmittable variants in different parts of the world. A return to pre-pandemic levels of economic growth is likely to be gradual and uneven. 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.
