World Coronavirus Dispatch: Covid could wipe out $16 trn of global wealth

WHO halts HCQ trials again, Australia jobless rate 19-year high, UK builds Covid war chest-roundup of news from across the world on the Covid-19 pandemic

In a new estimate of loss from the pandemic, BCG has said volatile markets and the economic fallout could wipe out as much as $16 trillion of global wealth this year and hinder growth for the next five years. This would be higher than the 2008 financial crisis, which erased $10 trillion.

Personal financial wealth reached $226 trillion globally last year, a 9.6 per cent gain from 2018 and the strongest annual growth rate since 2005. From 2019 through 2024 wealth growth worldwide could slow to a CAGR of 1.4 per cent if BCG’s worst case scenario pans out.