The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures have brought the world economy to a shuddering halt. In April the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached minus $37.63; airlines are not alone in shedding tens of thousands of staff. The GDP of China, the engine of world growth, shrunk by 8.6% in the first quarter of 2020. Low-income countries, ordinarily at the mercy of commodity prices, tourism and the volatility of remittance flows – through no fault of their own – find millions of their citizens, and by extrapolation all of us, are at risk of both the pandemic and also economic havoc.

Read more: World Economic Forum