Most of the major stock markets witnessed weak performance in January due to concerns about the impact of recent restrictions imposed in some countries on economic activity, in addition to the slow pace of offering Vaccines and their effectiveness against new mutated strains of the virus, which led to a decline in sentiment towards the risk appetite that prevailed earlier, and these conditions overshadowed the huge monetary stimulus package that may be launched in the United States by the end of the current quarter.
and the National Bank of Kuwait stated in its latest report issued today, Wednesday, that all these events came at a time when the International Monetary Fund revised the growth prospects for the global economy for the current year to 5.5% versus 5.2% in October, after taking into account economies recovering at a more positive pace after the pandemic, largely due to the strong growth in the United States (2% to 5.1% growth) compared to expectations that preceded the launch of vaccines.
However, the course of the virus will naturally remain a major factor in the global recovery, with the performance of developing markets likely to remain sluggish due to the lack of access to vaccines and their weak ability to adopt stimulus policies. On the other hand, the price of Brent crude oil increased by surpassing the $ 60 per barrel barrier for the first time in a year, and Saudi Arabia contributed in particular to the large cuts in unilateral production quotas, albeit for a specific period of time.
Biden pushes the fiscal stimulus forward
US President Joe Biden's focus during the first weeks of taking office was on tightening health measures to deal with the pandemic and rolling out the massive fiscal stimulus package that he proposed to support the economic recovery process after the emergence of Clear signs of this recovery are ebbing.
and some factors indicated a decline in the US economy, as employment reports again revealed a weak monthly performance of the labor market in January with employment rates rising by only 49,000 jobs (most of them). Government) with continued layoffs in the entertainment and hospitality sectors, which are most vulnerable to the virus.
The Biden team now appears more determined to push as much of the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package (8% of GDP) as possible, including checks for the value of $ 1,400 for citizens, even if that leads to abandoning a bipartisan deal and uniting with Republican lawmakers who want to pass a package worth less.
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