a minute agoIMF: World Economy in 2020 to suffer worst year from Great Depression
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)The world economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund has announced in its latest forecast. The IMF said today that it expects the global economy to shrink by three percent this year. This is much worse than [...]
The world economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund has announced in its latest forecast.
The IMF said today that it expects the global economy to shrink by three percent this year. This is far worse than the 0.1 percent drop in the 2009 recession after financial collapse.
The global economy is expected to return with a 5.8 percent increase in 2021, but the outlook is uncertain.
The grim assessment presents a surprising underestimation by the IMF. In January, before the outbreak of COVID-19 appeared as a serious global threat, the international lending organization forecasts modest growth of 3.3 percent this year.
However, broad measures to improve the pandemic have suddenly brought economic activity to a halt.
Because economic impact is acute in particular sectors, policymakers will have to implement significant fiscal, monetary and financial market measures to support domesticly affected households and businesses,” says the IMF.
The IMF says Europe has been hit especially badly. The 7.5 percent economic contractions are expected in the 19 eurozone countries and 6.5 percent in Great Britain.
World trade is projected to sink 11 percent this year before it grows by 8.4 percent in 2021.
The IMF accompanyings its predictions with a warning that there are many unknown factors: including the path the virus will take, the effectiveness of policies taken to improve the explosion and limit the economic damage, and uncertainty about the situation several months from now.
