IMF warns of global financial crisis according to World Economic Outlook (WEO) report

IMF warns of global economy decline. PHOTO | NEWS.CN

As the world fight in the virus pandemic, businesses are highly affected. The global business development has decreased sharply. China and Japan look better as business re-open and traffic on the modern roads seen in different cities.

The global economy is on course to contract "sharply" by 3 per cent in 2020 as a result of the virus pandemic, much worse than during the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to a World Economic Outlook (WEO) report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday.


"The world has changed dramatically in the three months since our last update of World Economic Outlook in January," IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said at a virtual press conference, noting that the latest projection is 6.3 percentage points lower than the previous estimation.


"As countries implement needed containment measures to control the pandemic, the world has been put in a great lockdown," Gopinath said.

"The magnitude and speed of collapse in an activity that has followed are unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes," Gopinath added.

In addition, many countries encounter various challenges, including health crises, financial crises, and a collapse in commodity prices, all of which "interact in complex ways," she said.

"considerable uncertainty about what the economic landscape will look like when we emerge from this lockdown as policymakers are responding in an unprecedented manner by helping households, firms and financial markets, " she noted.