IMF frets over risks to recovery

The resurgence of infections and the spread of new variants of the coronavirus are delaying a global economic recovery from the pandemic crisis, a senior official with the International Monetary Fund said.

While the world economy has "started to climb back from the depths of the crisis", defeating the pandemic remains the economic priority, said Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF's deputy managing director.

COVID-19 is "the biggest, most immediate crisis of our lifetimes", Sayeh said in a keynote speech for the virtual Warwick Economic Summit, an international conference hosted by the UK's University of Warwick.