Recent Developments in Overseas Economies I would first like to talk about developments in overseas economies, given the significant contraction in global economic activity caused by the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The global economy grew at a rate of around 3-4 percent up through 2019 but faced the outbreak of COVID-19 at the turn of 2020.
The impact of COVID-19 spread rapidly from China to other Asian countries including Japan, as well as Europe, the United States, and more or less the rest of the world in a short period of time. Economic globalization over the past four decades has been accompanied by a massive increase in the movement of people across countries.