Since the July 28 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. The global economic downturn in the wake of the virus has been 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 4.9 per cent in 2020.
This anticipated decline will be much worse than the downturn experienced during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Similarly, growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to
decline by 3.2 per cent in 2020.
