Yellen tells world’s big economies: spend big, danger lurks By Reuters – Investing.com UK

Yellen tells world’s big economies: spend big, danger lurks By Reuters – Investing.com UK

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Janet Yellen, now U.S. Treasury secretary, speaks during a panel discussion in Atlanta in 2019

By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday warned of the risk of a permanence divergence in the global economy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, and urged major economies to inject significant new fiscal support to secure a robust recovery. In a statement to the steering committees of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Yellen underscored the need for major economies to continue supporting developing countries as they grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and high debt burdens. She urged the World Bank to help countries, particularly the world's poorest, get timely access to COVID-19 vaccines, and backed accelerated negotiation to replenish the World Bank's International Development Association fund for the poorest countries - a goal the bank aims to reach by December. The United States had pledged $4 billion to the COVAX global vaccine distribution initiative, Yellen said, urging others to join in. She signalled that Washington, which so far has only loaned vaccines to Mexico and Canada, could provide excess doses to other countries in the future. "The