Projecting 2021’s economic winners and losers

The coronavirus has crippled the world economy. Global gross domestic product (GDP) suffered its sharpest drop in 2020 since the end of the second world war, millions were unemployed or furloughed, and governments pumped trillions of dollars into their economies to prevent greater damage. Nevertheless, a 2021 recovery is very uncertain. China’s economy is growing strongly again, but many of the world’s richest nations may not fully rebound until 2022 at the earliest. Inequality is also rampant. While America’s 651 billionaires their net worth by 30% to US$4 trillion, a quarter of a billion people in developing countries could face absolute poverty, and up to half the global workforce may...