Coronavirus Could Crash Economic Growth In 2020 – IMF

The International Monetary Fund( IMF) has said that the Coronavirus epidemic could damage global economic growth in 2020.

The funds Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said this at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai.

The epidemic which originated from Wuhan, China may inflict more damage than it has already done.

“There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space,”Georgieva said. 

Noting that a sharp and rapid economic rebound could follow after the economic damage, the IMF added that the full impact of the spreading disease would depend on how quickly it was contained.

“It is too early to say because we don’t yet quite know what the nature of this virus is. We don’t know how quickly China will be able to contain it. We don’t know whether it will spread to the rest of the world,” she said.

“We are now stuck with low productivity growth, low economic growth, low-interest rates and low inflation,”

In its January update to the World Economic Outlook, the IMF lowered global economic growth forecast in 2020 by a 0.1% point to 3.3%, following a 2.9 % growth the previous year.