The World Bank would provide financial support of up to $160 billion over the next 15 months to the poorest countries and nations vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic even as Bank president David Malpass urged economies to shed protective tendencies and allow more trade to recover from the economic downturn.

Malpass in a video conference with the media said: “Countries need to allow trade in order to cushion the blow from the economic downturn.”

He said he was worried about protectionism and reports some nations were hoarding foodgrains.

Time to reinvent

He said the global community should co-operate with one another in meeting the challenges, and the countries would have to reinvent and look at newer economic opportunities.

There would be funds available to developing countries to strengthen their health systems, shore up social safety nets and improve access to services.

Emphasis will be on bolstering their response capacity and building up disease surveillance.

Malpass said the World Bank was financing and implementing pandemic response programmes in 64 developing countries, with the number to grow to 100 by the end of April.

Malpass said the pandemic had unleashed a global recession that would be deeper than the financial crisis of 2008-2009. The Bank has projected the Indian economy to grow 1.5 per cent to 2.8 per cent in this fiscal, the slowest since the economy was liberalised in 1991.