realme, one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands, has registered phenomenal growth across different markets in the world in 2021 and is all set to disrupt the premium and high-end smartphone market with their phones from GT Series in 2022. With the advent of a new year, realme is gearing up to come up with more innovative smartphones for the users. On this occasion, realme Founder and CEO Sky Li has penned an open letter describing the milestones achieved by realme in 2021 and the manufacturer’s vision in the new year. Read:Smartphone and Tab Expo 2022: Realme showcases innovation excellence realme has become the fastest smartphone brand ever to ship 100 million smartphones globally in August 2021. Following this record-breaking achievement, realme’s annual smartphone sales volume has reached a record high of 60 million units, that increased 50% over the previous year. Already a Top 5 brand in 21 different markets, realme has also become the fastest-growing 5G Android brand in Q3 2021. “We will pursue ever greater innovations in technology and design to break into the Premium Segment with 70% of the company’s R&D resources focusing on high-end tech”, said Sky Li. 2021 was a happening year for realme as it has become a real best-selling brand globally. realme has created different records and made it to the top spots on the bestselling lists during different campaigns like Black Friday, 11.11 and Diwali festival organized by e-commerce platforms. Read:Daraz 12:12 campaign: 'Realme becomes top-selling smartphone brand' realme GT NEO 2, the flagship of the year, became the “Top 1 Best Selling 5G Smartphone’ at Daraz’s 11.11 sale, the world’s biggest sale campaign. In India, realme remained the top smartphone brand on Flipkart with more than 40% of the sales on the platform. Consequently, realme has been ranked as Top 1 best-selling smartphone brand in Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia on local platform like Daraz. Apart from these, realme is developing a diverse portfolio of 5G products with an aim to offer 100 million 5G phones in the next three years to the young users. Besides affordable 5G phones, realme will also bring more AIoT products to young consumers as realme has entered AIoT 2.0 development phase with its advanced ‘1+5+T’ strategy.  Read Infinix Hot 11 Play Review with Price in Bangladesh

The World Bank on Tuesday forecast global growth for this year at 5.6 percent, up 1.5 percentage points from its estimate in January as the United States and China showed robust rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic-induced downturn. The Washington-based lender also revised up Japan's growth for this year by 0.4 point to 2.9 percent on the back of fiscal support measures, but noted that the economic benefits from this summer's Tokyo Olympics will be limited due to the absence of foreign spectators. While emphasizing that this year's global growth outlook will mark the strongest recovery from any of the global recessions in the past 80 years, the World Bank warned in its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report that the rebound is "highly uneven" amid "highly unequal" coronavirus vaccine access. Also read: China among top 10 improvers in business climate 2nd year in a row: World Bank "Growth is concentrated in a few major economies, with most emerging market and developing economies lagging behind," the report said. While about 90 percent of advanced economies are expected to regain their pre-pandemic per capita income levels by 2022, only about one-third of emerging market and developing economies are expected to do so, it added. Global growth, which is estimated to have contracted 3.5 percent last year due to the pandemic, is projected to rise to 4.3 percent next year, a 0.5 point upgrade from the earlier estimate. Also read: Emerging, developing economies less prepared for downturn than 10 years ago: World Bank Among major economies, U.S. growth is expected to reach 6.8 percent this year, its fastest pace since 1984, owing to large-scale fiscal support, mass vaccination efforts and an ongoing easing of pandemic restrictions, according to the World Bank. In March, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, bringing the total fiscal support provided since the beginning of the pandemic last year to over one-quarter of the gross domestic product, it said. But U.S. growth next year will soften to 4.2 percent amid diminishing fiscal support. Japan's growth is expected to moderate to 2.6 percent in 2022, held back by lingering weakness in consumption amid subdued wage growth, the report said. Also read: World Bank prediction on Bangladesh economy inconsistent: Finance Minister China, after expanding 2.3 percent in 2020, is expected to see its growth jump to 8.5 percent in 2021, an upward revision of 0.6 point on expectations of stronger foreign demand. Its growth is expected to slow to 5.4 percent in 2022. The eurozone economy is believed to grow 4.2 percent and 4.4 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Global trade is forecast to grow 8.3 percent this year after plunging by the same percentage a year earlier.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected that the global economy will grow by 6 percent in 2021, 0.5 percentage point above the January forecast, according to the latest World Economic Outlook (WEO). "Thanks to the ingenuity of the scientific community, hundreds of millions of people are being vaccinated, and this is expected to power recoveries in many countries later this year," IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath told a virtual press briefing during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings. She noted that economies also continue to adapt to new ways of working despite reduced mobility, and large economies, particularly the United States, have rolled out additional fiscal support, both of which have helped improve the outlook. Also read: IMF revises down 2020 Asian economy forecast to 2.2 pc contraction Nonetheless, the future presents "daunting" challenges, said the IMF chief economist. "The pandemic is yet to be defeated and virus cases are accelerating in many countries," Gopinath said. "Recoveries are also diverging dangerously across and within countries, as economies with slower vaccine rollout, more limited policy support, and more reliant on tourism do less well," she continued. Gopinath told reporters that policymakers need to take a "tailored" approach in providing support, with policies well-calibrated to the stage of the pandemic, the strength of the economic recovery, and the structural characteristics of individual countries. "Governments will need to build back the fiscal positions after this crisis. And the hope is that they will build forward better to have more inclusive, sustainable, green, economies," she said. The latest WEO showed that the United States would be the only large advanced economy projected to surpass the level of gross domestic product (GDP) it was forecast to have in 2022 in the absence of this pandemic. The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 6.4 percent this year, after a 3.5-percent contraction in 2020. Also read: Bangladesh overtakes India in per capita GDP, according to IMF Other advanced economies, including the euro area, will also rebound this year but at a slower pace, the report noted. Among emerging markets and developing economies, China is projected to grow by 8.4 percent this year, 0.3 percentage point above the January forecast, according to the report. The upward revision, Gopinath said, reflects improved external environment, with stronger global growth and U.S. COVID-19 relief package, which have increased the demand for China's products. Noting that China has seen a very strong recovery, the IMF chief economist said the recovery is "somewhat unbalanced," as it's still heavily reliant on public support and public investment, and private consumption has not recovered as fast as hoped. Also read: IMF: Nearly all Mideast economies hit by pandemic recession "So, to make this a durable recovery, our hope is that fiscal measures and other support measures would work in the direction of supporting the recovery coming from the private sector, as opposed to the public sector," she said. While China's economy had already returned to pre-pandemic GDP in 2020, many other emerging markets and developing economies are not expected to do so until 2023, the WEO report showed. The newly released report projected the global economy to expand 4.4 percent in 2022, 0.2 percentage point above its January forecast. In 2020, global economy saw an estimated historic contraction of 3.3 percent, said the IMF.