Asia-Pacific's GDP Growth To Slow Down To 3.7% In 2020 Due To COVID-19 Outbreak - UN

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Andrei Savenkov. The economic growth of the Asia-Pacific countries may fall to 3.7 percent in 2020, a 0.6 percent drop compared to the previous year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) told Sputnik in an interview.

"ESCAP's upcoming Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2020 forecasts that developing countries in the region will grow at a slower pace of 3.7 percent in 2020 - a sharp decline from 5.3 percent in 2018 and 4.3 percent in 2019," Alisjahbana said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced air traffic worldwide, and many people have switched to working from home, driving demand for jet fuel and gasoline downward. On top of that, many factories in China and Italy, among other countries severely hit by COVID-19, have been shut.

This week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) voiced concerns about the negative outlook for global growth this year, and these concerns were shared by Alisjahbana.

"The economic shock of COVID-19 has impacted livelihoods and the region's economic outlook. Deceleration in GDP growth could be significant. The setbacks would be uneven across countries, depending on their current economic conditions and the exposure to COVID-19," the UN official stated.

A sudden decline in revenue across all sectors in the region has occurred as a result of the coronavirus disease, leaving small- and medium-sized enterprises as well as those who are self-employed vulnerable. Therefore, the region needs to introduce stronger social protection systems to help those vulnerable to health risks and income losses, the UN official stressed.

On Monday, the UN Conference on Trade and Development called for a $2.5 trillion rescue package for emerging economies impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Three days earlier, leaders of the G20 countries pledged to collectively inject $5 trillion into the global economy to offset the damage caused by the pandemic that has already claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.