UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2020 Calls for Measures to tackle Inequality

The new UNCTAD Report argues that, of all the pre-existing conditions exposed by the COVID-19 shock, hyper-inequality which has been the product of 4 decades of wage repression, poses the biggest threat to stability and global welfare. The report warns that talk of a “K”-shaped recovery suggests an even more unequal future, with a so-called “V-shaped” recovery for the wealthy and a struggle for everyone else. The global financial crisis revealed the extent to which the financial industry had come to dominate policy and business decisions while fuelling unreliable and unsustainable growth. UNCTAD is concerned that polarization is now hard-wired into the hyperglobalized growth model in both the developed and developing worlds. The Trade and Development Report 2020 argues that tackling this problem must go beyond calls to “leave no one behind” and look instead at how policy choices pick winners and threaten to block a more inclusive recovery.