IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva confirmed the world economy was already sluggish before the coronavirus outbreak now bound to suffer a “severe recession” in 2020.
Addressing the Development Committee Meeting during the annual Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the IMF Managing Director said a massive global contraction in the first half of this year was inevitable.
She said the coronavirus pandemic hit the world economy when it was already in a fragile state as it was weighed down by trade disputes, policy uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions.
The global coronavirus outbreak is a crisis that is like no other and poses daunting challenges for policymakers in many emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), especially where the pandemic encounters weak public health systems, capacity constraints.
Countries that were affected early-such as China, South Korea, and Italy-have suffered massive contractions in manufacturing activity and services, exceeding the losses recorded at the onset of the global financial crisis.
