What does 2021 have in store for the world economy? Optimists had been hoping for a big upswing after the worst year for GDP since the second world war, but then came more lockdowns and new coronavirus variants that scientists are still racing to understand.

Steve Schifferes expects to see winners and losers around the world. Asia – especially China – will reap the benefits of getting COVID under control early. Scenes of revellers celebrating the western new year in Wuhan could symbolise China’s year ahead: business booming as international demand for many of their products endures and life at home goes on unrestricted.

Schifferes predicts harder times for the west, and even worse for developing countries struggling to source vaccines and sell their commodities. He also expects widening inequality everywhere as stimulus packages dry up.

Elsewhere, a psychologist offers a view on why Boris Johnson delays making lockdown decisions, and we look at why the great nature broadcaster David Attenborough is irreplaceable.

Steven Vass

Business + Economy Editor

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. China’s economy is now showing strong growth. Shutterstock

World economy in 2021: here’s who will win and who will lose

Steve Schifferes, City, University of London

China is due to surge ahead, but there is bad news for other developing countries.

PA/Stefan Rousseau

Why does Boris Johnson delay coronavirus lockdown decisions? A psychologist gives her view

Nicola Power, Lancaster University

The prime minister stands accused of dither and delay for the third time after announcing another England-wide lockdown.

Andy Rain / EPA

Why David Attenborough cannot be replaced

Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, UCL

Wildlife television as we know it was constructed around Attenborough. Take him away and the whole thing needs to be reinvented.

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