The coronavirus pandemic has driven the global economy into a downturn that will require massive funding to help developing nations, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday.
By Kristina Georgieva (*) – While quarantining and social distancing is the right prescription to combat COVID-19’s public health impact, the exact opposite is needed when it comes to securing the global economy.
The US has cut interest rates to almost zero and launched a US$ 700bn stimulus program in a bid to protect the economy from the effect of coronavirus. It is part of a coordinated action announced on Sunday in the UK, Japan, the Eurozone, Canada, and Switzerland.
In the best-case scenario, the economic hit from the epidemic in China will be short-lived, but it comes as the global economy remains fragile, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday.
Global economic growth is likely to be only slightly faster this year than the weak 0performance seen in 2019, according to a World Bank forecast. The world economy is likely to expand by 2.5% in 2020, up from 2.4% last year, the Bank's economists predict.
US stocks tumbled into the red on Monday as attacks on Saudi crude production and record jumps in oil prices whipped up investor anxieties about the global economy.
Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as worries that a weakening global economy would dent demand for the commodity outweighed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) decision to extend supply cuts until next March.
Latin American stocks and currencies surged on Tuesday with a dovish boost from the European Central Bank and positive headlines from the U.S.-China trade tensions boosting sentiment.
The World Bank slashed its global growth forecasts for this year in a report released on Tuesday that portrayed a world gripped by deepening trade conflict, tumbling confidence and increasingly skittish investment. Although the global development lender currently expects a modest recovery 2020 and 2021, the bank said in its semi-annual report that a lot will have to go right for this to happen.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global economic growth forecasts for 2019 and warned growth could slow further due to trade tensions and a potentially disorderly British exit from the European Union.