PARIS: The OECD sharply hiked its 2021 global growth forecast on Tuesday as the deployment of coronavirus vaccines and a huge US stimulus program greatly improve the economic prospects.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said it now expects the global economy to grow 5.6 percent, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from its December forecast.
“Global economic prospects have improved markedly in recent months, helped by the gradual deployment of effective vaccines, announcements of additional fiscal support in some countries, and signs that economies are coping better with measures to suppress the virus,” it said in a report.
The recovery will be largely led by the United States thanks to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus program, Laurence Boone, chief economist of the OECD, told AFP.
The OECD sees the US economy growing 6.5 percent this year, a very sharp increase of 3.3 percentage points on its previous forecast, with the world as a whole returning to pre-pandemic output levels by mid-2021.
But for the moment, only China, India and Turkey have surpassed pre-pandemic levels and the picture is very mixed elsewhere.
“Despite the improved global outlook, output and incomes in many countries will remain below the level expected prior to the pandemic at the end of 2022,” said the OECD, which groups the world’s most developed economies.
It said the “top policy priority” is to deploy vaccines as quickly as possible, to save lives as well as to speed economic recovery.
“There are huge and significant risks to our economic projections, most notably the pace of vaccination,” Boone told AFP.
“What we know is the faster countries vaccinate, the quicker they can reopen their economy,” she said.
Britain, which also has rolled out vaccines quickly, got a 0.9 percentage point increase to 5.1 percent — higher than the UK’s own forecast, which was lowered last week.
The eurozone, where vaccination campaigns have been slower, received only a 0.3 percentage point bump to 3.9 percent, as the recoveries in both Italy and France were revised lower.
OECD hikes 2021 world growth forecast to 5.6% on vaccine, stimulus rollout
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OECD hikes 2021 world growth forecast to 5.6% on vaccine, stimulus rollout
- The “top policy priority” is to deploy vaccines as quickly as possible, to save lives as well as to speed economic recovery.
Qatar CPI falls in January, annual inflation rises 2.28%
JEDDAH: Qatar’s consumer price index climbed 2.28 percent in January from a year earlier, official data showed, while registering a 2.22 percent drop from the previous month.
The decline from December was led by an 11.97 percent drop in recreation and culture prices, alongside decreases in miscellaneous goods and services, restaurants and hotels, clothing, food and housing-related costs, Qatar News Agency reported, citing data from the National Planning Council.
This was followed by miscellaneous goods and services at 3.46 percent, restaurants and hotels at 1.90 percent, clothing and footwear at 1.15 percent, food and beverages at 0.59 percent, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 0.17 percent.
Qatar’s inflation remains relatively contained compared with wider global price swings, helped by stable housing costs and government subsidies. Across the region, trends are mixed, with Saudi inflation easing to 1.8 percent in January while Egypt’s annual rate slowed to 10.1 percent even as monthly prices jumped.
“The annual increase, comparing January 2026 with the same month in 2025, was driven by rises in eight groups,” QNA reported, noting that the largest year-on-year increases were seen in miscellaneous goods and services, which rose 12.40 percent.
Price increases were observed in the transport group at 0.54 percent, followed by communication at 0.32 percent and health at 0.27 percent. Furniture and household equipment rose 0.20 percent and education edged up 0.06 percent, while tobacco recorded no change.
This was followed by recreation and culture at 4.90 percent and clothing and footwear at 3.25 percent. Food and beverages rose 2.87 percent, furniture and household equipment 2.37 percent, education 2.08 percent, housing and utilities 1.21 percent, and communication 0.40 percent.
In contrast, QNA further reported, three groups saw annual declines: restaurants and hotels, down 2 percent; health, down 1.38 percent; and transport, down 0.48 percent, while the tobacco group remained unchanged.
“When calculating the CPI for January 2026 excluding the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels group, the index reached 114.57 points, down by 2.65 percent compared with December 2025, and up by 2.51 percent compared with January 2025,” the QNA report added.
The index — which tracks inflation across 12 main expenditure groups covering 737 goods and services — is based on 2018 as the reference year, drawing on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 2017–2018.
