IMF May Further Downgrade Projections For Global Economy - Managing Director

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) may further downgrade its projections for the global economy that it expects today to contract by 3 percent in 2020, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday.

"Just in January we were projecting 160 countries to have positive per capita income and just about 3 percent growth for the world economy. Today, we are projecting 170 countries to have negative per capita income and the global economy to shrink by 3 percent," Georgieva told the BBC. "As we revise projections in a couple of weeks from what we see from incoming data for quite a number of countries, there may be even a further downgrade.

"

Georgieva said the situation appears to be worsening due to the increasing number of novel coronavirus infections in some parts of the world, posing uncertainty about the global economy.

"We simply do not yet know what is going to happen with this virus and how the pandemic will evolve," Georgieva said.

In its June World Economic Outlook, the IMF said projected global growth to be -4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April forecast. In 2021, economic growth is projected to strengthen to 5.4 percent, which is 0.4 percent lower than the April forecast.