The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated global income inequality, partly reversing the decline of the previous two decades. Weak recoveries in emerging markets and developing economies are expected to raise between-country inequality. Globally, the absolute number of refugees in 2021 was the highest on record. The war in Ukraine is creating one of the largest refugee crises of modern times.

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three fifths of countries with available data saw higher growth in household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population than the national average. The pandemic is threatening to reverse this trend. In 2020 many countries saw declines in growth among the bottom 40 per cent of greater magnitude than the national average.

Banks’ profitability weakened in 2020 mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, although reported asset quality remained good. Based on financial soundness indicators data for 2015–2020, the fraction of countries reporting return on assets above 1.0 per cent declined to 48 per cent in 2020 from 72 per cent in 2019 and the median return on assets declined from 1.5 per cent to 1.0 per cent.

The International Organization for Migration Missing Migrants Project recorded 5,895 deaths on migratory routes worldwide in 2021, a number surpassing pre-pandemic figures and making 2021 the deadliest year on record for migrants since 2017.

By mid-2021, the number of people who were forced to flee their countries owing to war, conflict, persecution, human rights violations or events causing serious disturbances of public order had grown to 24.5 million, the highest absolute number on record. For every 100,000 people, 311 are refugees outside their country of origin, an increase from 216 in 2015. In addition, as at 12 April 2022, about 4.7 million refugees from Ukraine had crossed borders into neighbouring countries.

Globally, in 2021, 62.3 per cent of 138 countries with data reported having a wide range of policies to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, meaning that they had policy measures for 80 per cent or more of the 30 subcategories under the six domains of the indicator.

The proportions of tariff lines applied to imports admitted duty-free from least developed countries, small island developing States and developing countries have remained relatively stable in recent years, at around 64.5 per cent, 65 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively.

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