You're reading: Wall Street Journal: Covid’s next challenge — the divide between rich and poor economies

Wall Street Journal: Covid’s next challenge — the divide between rich and poor economies

Published May 19, 2021. Updated May 19 at 5:07 am

A photo taken on Sept. 11, 2020 shows laboratory technicians handling vials as part of filling and packaging tests for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AstraZeneca's AZD1222, conducted on a high-performance aseptic vial filling line at the Italian biologics' manufacturing facility of multinational corporation Catalent in Anagni, southeast of Rome, during the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus. - Italian newspaper La Stampa said on March 24, 2021 that AstraZeneca is hiding 30 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine at the Catalent plant in Anagni, ready to be shipped to the United Kingdom, discovered by Italian authorities following an investigation triggered by a report from the European Commission.

Photo by AFP

Covid-19 is reopening a rift between economies in the world’s richest and poorest nations, driven by growth rates that are moving firmly in opposite directions. In the U.S., economists are forecasting a return to boomtime growth levels of the “roaring 20s”; China’s economy expanded at a record 18.3% in the first quarter; and the U.K. is growing faster than at any time since the end of World War II.