Claims globalisation has ‘had its heyday’ are premature, Lloyd’s chief executive says
Claims the dual shocks of Covid and the war in Ukraine have halted the “all conquering forces of globalisation” are “premature,” Lloyd’s of London chief executive John Neal told City A.M.
In an op-ed in this newspaper, the insurance chief said that while we will “rightly see a degree of retreat and retrenchment” in coming months, the world we live in will remain a “highly integrated and connected” world.
“The global economy has always opened and closed its borders to defend from emerging threats or seize new opportunities,” Neal said.
Despite recent retreats from regions and reshoring of supply chains in response to shocks to the global economy, “claims that globalisation has ‘had its heyday’ are premature,” the head of the centuries-old insurance market said.
The City chief argued “economic interests” will continue to “open doors and dialogues where diplomatic relations have been all but severed,” as he suggested the current crisis of globalisation simply “highlights how interconnected our world really is.”
In his March letter to shareholders, Blackrock chief executive Larry Fink said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “has put an end to the globalisation we have experienced over the last three decades.”