The World Bank believes that economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific, excluding China, is likely to be slower than expected this year, mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the shortage of COVID-19 vaccine supplies in many countries, Reuters reported.


East Asia and the Pacific, excluding China, will grow by 4 percent this year, down from a forecast of 4.4 percent in March, World Bank President Thomas Malpass said Thursday. Including China, the region would grow 7.7 per cent this year, up from a forecast of 7.4 per cent in March.

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Data show that the number of new cases of COVID-19 in a single day in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and other countries has reached a new high since the outbreak of the epidemic.


Malpass warned that the speed at which countries roll out COVID remains a risk for the future, with many countries in the region unlikely to fully vaccinate their populations before 2024. "The priority for developing countries is to have widespread access to vaccines that match their deployment plans," Malpass said. He worries that developing countries are being left behind in the recovery and could evolve into a "two-track recovery".


"That's why we're focusing on expanding vaccine coverage," he said. The World Bank announced earlier this month that it would increase its total funding for the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to $20 billion from $12 billion previously.

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