Market and product

The International Monetary Fund says the Great Coronavirus Lockdown will see economies shrink dramatically in more than 170 countries, including here in Australia where growth will dive by 6.7 per cent and bring almost three decades of economic sunshine to a shuddering halt.

Pointing to the extreme uncertainty surrounding the global growth forecast, the report underlined that many countries faced a multi-layered crisis comprising of health shocks, domestic economic disruptions, plummeting external demand, capital flow reversals and a collapse in commodity prices.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting high and rising human costs worldwide, and the necessary protection measures are severely impacting economic activity".

"The cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars (€8.2 trillion), greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined", Ms Gopinath said.

In a sharp revision, the latest report expects the global economy to contract by 3% in the course of 2020, reflecting IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva's earlier warning of a "broad-based global recession".

The IMF said it expected the Irish economy to grow by 6.3pc next year and the Eurozone by 4.7pc as a recovery kicked in.

At first glance, the decline may seem large, but when compared with emerging European economies, it is not.

The debt suspension will last until the end of the year but creditors will consider a possible extension during 2020, taking into account a report on countries' liquidity needs by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the G20 said. The current account balance will remain negative at -2.0% in 2020 and -2.4% in 2021.

Lebanon, meanwhile, is expected to have one of the worst-performing economies in 2020, declining by 12 percent.

In its World Economic Outlook published Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said it now expects Canada's gross domestic product to contract 6.2 per cent this year.

"Risks of a worse outcome predominate". It has called for the necessity of effective policies. - Source: Nikkei -