The emergence of a new strain of coronavirus will slow the global economic recovery, according to the WTO. The organization believes this can be prevented by ensuring equal access to vaccines. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, its director general, expressed this view at an online conference this week. Following the discovery of another type of coronavirus, the WTO held an emergency meeting at which it was categorized as a concern. The head of the organization said it posed a significant risk to a sustained global economic recovery. The U.S. and European stock exchanges closed yesterday with a drop - all major U.S. and European stock indexes ended the day in the red zone. The former declined within 2%, the latter - within 0.3%. As noted by experts, concerns about the epidemiological situation remain, despite the optimism at the beginning of the week. The important event of the next week is the meeting of the Federal Reserve which will decide on the key rate and the US economic stimulus.