Happy new year? Five economic flashpoints to beware in 2022 | Global economy
After the turmoil of the past two years, the consensus among economic pundits is that 2022 will be calmer. But in late 2019, when the first reports of a new strain of the coronavirus started to filter out from Wuhan in China, few imagined within months that the world economy would be flattened by a pandemic. So what are the big risks for the coming year?
A new Covid strain derails the global economy
A new Covid variant could block the global economic recovery. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
It is too early to say how serious the Omicron strain of the virus will prove to be but it has already put paid to hopes that life was about to return to pre-pandemic normality. Consumers have not needed to be instructed to obey restrictions; often they have tempered their own behaviour. A return to full-scale lockdowns would have much more severe consequences.
Dhaval Joshi, an economist at BCA Research says more and more variants will…
