IMF says decline in global growth worse than forecast

The International Monetary Fund has lowered its global growth forecast for this year and next in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The IMF says it now expects 2020 global output to shrink by 4.9%, compared with a 3.0% contraction predicted in April, when it used data available as widespread business lockdowns were just getting into full swing.

IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, had already warned that the April forecast had been overtaken by events, and that the likely path of the global economy was looking worse.

The recession caused by the pandemic - globally and in many individual countries - is likely to be deeper than the IMF previously thought.

[Source: BBC]