Coronavirus: IMF rules out return to pre-Covid stage before 2023

Dubai - IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said she expects the global economy to shrink further beyond the current estimate.

The International Monetary Fund, making a gloomier forecast, said it would take until 2023 for the world economy to return to its pre-Covid-19 levels, albeit the "most severe shock has already occurred"
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said she expects the global economy to shrink further beyond the current estimate of minus 3.0 per cent in 2020, before a "partial recovery" in 2021.
"The most severe shock has already occurred," Georgieva said, noting that 170 countries have entered negative economic growth since March.
Gita Gopinath, chief economist of the IMF, has estimated that the cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around $9.0 trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined.
The IMF's latest prediction echoes a warning by the Asian Development Bank about the $8.8 trillion global economic catastrophe yet to be unfolded.
issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com