COVID TONIC

…Africa needs $100bn for Covid-19 aftermath, Ramaphosa tells UN

JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa said Africa needs financing of $100 billion for "fiscal space and liquidity" for the continent's governments amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been described as the worst shock to the global economy since World War II.

Ramaphosa addressed the UN's high-level meeting on financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the era of Covid-19 and beyond on Tuesday via a video message.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres described breaching the millionth Covid-19 death as a "tragic milestone." "The economic and social consequences are as bad as we feared, and in some cases, worse. We are suffering the largest economic contraction since the Second World War," he said.

"Unless we take action now, we face a global recession that could wipe out decades of development and put the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development completely out of reach."

He said: "The economic and social consequences are as bad as we feared, and in some cases, worse. We are suffering the largest economic contraction since the Second World War." The managing director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva also described the pandemic as the biggest shock since World War II.

"The situation is particularly low-income countries," she said.

The president of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, said the pandemic was hitting developing countries especially hard. – NEWS24. grave for