WASHINGTON: The global spread of the novel coronavirus has crushed hopes for stronger growth this year and will hold 2020 global output gains to their slowest pace since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
The IMF now expects 2020 world growth to be below the 2.9 per cent rate for 2019, and revised forecasts will be issued in the coming weeks, Georgieva told a news briefing. Trade wars pushed global growth last year to the lowest rate since a 0.7 per cent contraction in 2009.
The changed forecast would represent a more than 0.4-percentage-point drop from the 3.3 per cent growth the IMF had estimated for 2020 in January as US-China trade tensions eased.
“Global growth in 2020 will dip below last year’s levels, but how far it will fall and how long the impact will be is still difficult to predict,” Georgieva said.
She declined to say whether the escalating health crisis could push the world into a recession. — Reuters
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