IMF warns today that because of coronavirus pandemic, “it is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago. The Great Lockdown, as one might call it, is projected to shrink global growth dramatically.”
In 2020, world output is estimated to contract by -3.0%. Advanced economies are expected to contract by -6.1% overall. US GDP would decline by -6.1%, Eurozone by -7.5%, Japan -5.2%, UK by -6.5% and Canada by -6.2%. China’s growth is projected to slow sharply to 1.2% only.
Global economy is expected to return to growth in 2021. But IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath warned that “this recovery in 2021 is only partial as the level of economic activity is projected to remain below the level we had projected for 2021, before the virus hit. The cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined.”
