EU chief warns of Covid crisis' domino effect

Brussels, March 30 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned of the "domino effect" of the health crisis brought about by the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

"We risk that the Covid crisis sets off a number of other crises, especially in developing countries," she said while addressing a high-level meeting on international debt architecture and liquidity on Monday.

Von der Leyen named those crises as a debt one, an education crisis and a crisis of rising inequalities both between countries and within countries.

She called for investment and action at the global level to avert the crises, asking countries to focus on two parallel strands of work fighting the pandemic and pursuing a green economic recovery, with the Sustainable Development Goals at its core.

In his virtual speech at the meeting, US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for better debt relief and new creative financing for poorer nations.

"Developing countries need access to additional liquidity to respond to the pandemic, and to invest in recovery," he said.

( With inputs from IANS )

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