Marcus Millo/iStock(NEW YORK) — Despite markets rallying somewhat Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund was not as optimistic in its 2020 World Economic Outlook.
According to the IMF, it’s predicted the global economy will contract by three percent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is a more severe economic downturn than the 2008 recession.
The IMF says that the contraction could cause global GDP from 2020 to 2021 to shrink by nine trillion dollars, which is more than Japan and Germany’s economies combined.
According to Gita Gopinath, the economic counselor and director of research at the IMF, these numbers mean this could become “the worst recession since the Great Depression, and far worse than the Global Financial Crisis.”
The contraction has been dubbed “the Great Lockdown” as numerous businesses remain closed to stop the spread of COVID-19, resulting in over 16 million Americans filing for unemployment since the onset of the pandemic.
Gopinath continued, “This is a truly global crisis as no country is spared. Countries reliant on tourism, travel, hospitality, and entertainment for their growth are experiencing particularly large disruptions.”
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