The sluggish progress of Covid-19 vaccination outside the Us is a key threat to the economic outlook, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated on Thursday, echoing calls to address the widening disparity between rich and poor nations.While the US is on track to vaccinate three-fourths of its population by late June and other wealthy countries are following suit, emerging-market economies are on pace to vaccinate only 28% of their populations by the end of the year, according to UBS research. That gap, and its economic insinuations, ended up becoming the main focus of international policy creators this week in a round of meetings arranged by the International Monetary Fund. “Viruses are no respecters of borders, and until the world really is vaccinated we’re going to be at risk of new mutations, “Mr. Powell stated on Thursday in an IMF seminar on the global economy. “I would look at global vaccination as a risk really…to the progress that we are making.”The IMF elevated its forecast for global economic growth this year to 6%, up from a forecast of 5.5% in January. That would mark the quickest expansion in at least four decades, supported by vaccines and trillions of dollars of relief spending by rich countries’ governments.