Though things are slowly moving back to normal, the omnicorn variant of COVID-19 has put a question mark on global economic growth, it is increasing day by day.
If lockdowns and travel restrictions are imposed again to curb the spread of the new variant, supply chains would be affected.
Nowadays Europe, Austria, and Slovakia are under 14-day lockdown. Japan has banned the entry of all foreign nationals into the country, while the US has banned all to-and-fro flights from southern Africa.
Also, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi in its effort to stop the omnicorn variant from reaching its edge.
On the other side, these announcements are also indirectly dampening the festival spirit and people are now not likely to go shopping for Christmas as expected before.
For this, companies are no more hopeful like earlier and may re-think on their upcoming expansion plans.
The new variant has also made it difficult for economists to predict economic outlooks.
At present, all eyes are focused on the medical scientists for their expert opinion on several questions, like how quickly the new variant can be transmitted from one person to another, are the existing vaccines effective, and is lockdown a better way to halt the spread of the virus.
Unfortunately, the scientists conclude, the world has come to understand that the virus is here to stay, and it will continue to be a threat to the global economy, at least, for the next few years.
Meanwhile, if the new variant takes an ugly turn, which no one can predict as of now. The governments and central banks may run out of options, as many of them have already given all the possible stimulus last year in their effort to boost growth in their countries.
