During the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shared his pessimistic views about the future. He supposes that soon the world will face the gravest crisis in the last 80 years.

The economic and social consequences of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic are really disastrous. It will take a lot of time to cope with them. Moreover, the situation is getting worse.

At the same time, the hopes that the mass vaccination will improve the state of affairs are rather vague. The damage is much more serious than economists initially thought. As a result, the world will hardly avoid the deepest recession in the last 80 years.

Antonio Guterres emphasizes the rising levels of extreme poverty and looming famine. He believes that the main reason for such disasters is the failure of countries to unite to combat the global threat.

This, in turn, did not allow them to develop correct and timely measures to contain the virus spread just after the outbreak. In other words, the reaction of most countries to an immediate spread of the coronavirus infection was divergent, chaotic, and unstable.

The virus has also deteriorated the already sour relations between various countries. The competitiveness between the states for markets of essential items has become really fierce.

The forecast provided by Antonio Guterres partially proves the predictions made by Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley. Earlier, he said that in 2021, people would face the gravest humanitarian crisis.