IMF backs $50-bn plan to help world escape coronavirus crisis in 2022

The International Monetary Fund called for a $50 billion spending plan to protect vast swaths of the world against Covid-19 and narrow a gap in access to life-saving vaccines that’s threatening the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

That investment would fund an ambitious effort to immunize at least 40% of the global population by the end of this year and 60% or more by the first half of 2022, the IMF said on Friday. While saving lives, a faster rebound would also deliver a potential $9 trillion economic boost by 2025, the fund estimates.

“Economic recoveries are diverging dangerously,”