IMF forecasts deeper global recession than expected before

The IMF has forecast a sharper decline in world economic growth than was expected just two months earlier, saying that the coronavirus pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast.

Global growth is projected at –4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast…In 2021 global growth is projected at 5.4 percent. Overall, this would leave 2021 GDP some 6½ percentage points lower than in the pre-COVID-19 projections of January 2020.” says the World Economic Outlook of the IMF.

The IMF forecasts the sharpest declines in economies where the coronavirus was widely spread, such as Italy, France, Spain, the countries of Latin America. A severe decline is forecast also for the UK with a more than 10 per cent shrink in the economy this year.

However, if the coronavirus pandemic continues, the [world economy] will decline even more” said Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva.

Economic growth in Georgia is projected to reach three per cent in 2021, while it will be reduced by four per cent in 2020, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook published back in April 2020.