ECONOMIC AND MARKET OVERVIEW
Global
A resurgence in Covid 19 infections, especially in India, caused some discomfort among investors. Accompanied by a less than smooth roll out of vaccinations in most territories it’s not yet clear that the world has put the pandemic behind it.
India’s reached a stage where more than 400 000 Covid 19 cases are reported every day. This is a very high number in absolute terms, but expressed as number of cases per million citizens (bearing in mind India’s population is approaching 1.4 billion people) this is still much lower than the peak of the previous waves’ experience in many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and Germany.
Against this backdrop the global economy still seems to be on its recovery trajectory and investment markets have not been left behind According to the World Bank’s Global Monthly report of April, high frequency economic data still points to a strengthening of global growth, led by the United States. This continued growth is also fueled by continued benign global financial conditions (low interest rates and asset purchase programs of central banks). These accommodative monetary and fiscal policies are likely to continue in the wake of the recent rise of Covid 19 cases.
