The economic impact of the Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of next year if the disease ravaging Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone spreads to neighboring countries in West Africa, the World Bank Group said Wednesday. The World Bank’s assessment said the economic impact of Ebola is already serious in the three countries and could be catastrophic if it becomes a more regional health crisis.
The World Bank released a statement Wednesday warning that the economic impact of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was “already serious” and could be “catastrophic” if the international community does not take serious action soon. This Ebola outbreak is unprecendented in scope, and worsening with alarming speed. There have been 2,453 deaths counted so far, and 4,963 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases — almost half of which have been diagnosed in the past 21 days.
The world is facing a global jobs crisis that is hurting the chances of reigniting economic growth and there is no magic bullet to solve the problem, the World Bank warned on Tuesday. In a study released at a G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting in Australia, the Bank said an extra 600 million jobs needed to be created worldwide by 2030 just to cope with the expanding population. “There’s little doubt there is a global jobs crisis,” said the World Bank’s senior director for jobs, Nigel Twose.