Olam International : CEO says economic recovery from COVID-19 will be painfully slow

LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of one of the world's largest agri-commodity trade houses said on Thursday global economic growth will only return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022 at the earliest.

"I don't see V-shaped recovery. We've come down in an escalator, but we're going to go back up the stairs," Sunny Verghese of Olam International said at the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) conference.

The comments came as recent positive data from two COVID-19 vaccine trials have spurred hopes the global economy will be back on track by next year. [MKTS/GLOB]

Singapore-based Olam sources food ingredients from around five million farmers globally, and operates over 180 food processing facilities around the world.

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Mark Potter)

By Maytaal Angel