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The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has said about 170 countries will experience negative per capita income growth as a result of the coronavirus pandemic causing global economic challenges.
IMF’s Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, on Thursday said it was already clear that global growth would turn sharply negative in 2020 as it would be revealed in the World Economic Outlook next week.
“In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the great depression. Just three months ago, we expected positive per capita income growth in over 160 of our member countries in 2020.
“Today, that number has been turned on its head: we now project that over 170 countries will experience negative per capita income growth this year,” she said.
While noting that the bleak outlook applied to advanced and developing economies alike, she said the crisis knew no boundaries.
Given the necessary containment measures to slow the spread of the virus, Georgieva said the world economy was taking a substantial hit.
“This is especially true for retail, hospitality, transport, and tourism
“In most countries, the majority of workers are either self-employed or employed by the Small and Medium Enterprises. These businesses and workers are especially exposed,” Georgieva added.
The IMF boss stated that as the health crisis hit vulnerable people hardest, the economic crisis was expected to hit weak countries hardest, adding that IMF had $1 trillion in lending capacity and was placing it at the service of its membership.
“We are responding to an unprecedented number of calls for emergency financing from over 90 countries so far.
“Our executive board has just agreed to double access to our emergency facilities, which will allow us to meet the expected demand of about $100 billion in financing.
“Lending programmes have already been approved at record speed, including for the Kyrgyz Republic, Rwanda, Madagascar, and Togo, with many more to come,” the IMF boss stated.
This is scary but the sequence of explanation by your new media provided that we should all tighten our belts for more fiscal discipline.
Thanks a bunch.