Page 5 - Policy_Economic_Report_September2020

Policy and Economic Report:
Oil & Gas Market

Policy & Economic Report – Oil & Gas

Market

Economy in Focus

1. A Snapshot of the Global Economy: Green shoots visible; future growth depends on managing the
pandemic

Throughout the month of September, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to rise at an accelerated
pace and reached 31,174,627 as on 23 September, 2020. The pandemic has already claimed 962,613 lives.

Source: WHO

The growth patterns of various economies have continued to differ widely, depending very much on how
COVID-19 developments have been handled over the past months, how effectively fiscal and monetary
stimulus measures were applied and what the economic and fiscal situation was pre-COVID-19. Some
improvements recorded by the end of second quarter of 2020 in the US and the EU have counterbalanced
for the challenges faced in Japan, India, other Asian countries and Africa. While the infection rates have
continued to rise across the world, number of deaths and hospitalizations have registered a notable drop.

It appears that most economies have now started to adapt to the new realities of the post-COVID world
and manufacturing is picking up again, while the services sector sees some fragility in important
subsectors, namely travel and tourism, leisure and hospitality. These sectors are expected to remain
affected for some time to come and will reach their pre-COVID levels only by end of 2021.

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September 2020