Kremlin Warns Of Coming COVID-19 Economic Crisis, Says Preparation Needed

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) KAMCHATSKY, April 5 (Sputnik) - The global economic crisis, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, is yet to manifest itself, and preparing for it will require a coordinated international effort, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"Of course, we are aware that the world economic crisis that was triggered by the coronavirus, among other things, has yet to manifest itself. We need to prepare for this crisis, and, undoubtedly, coordination of anti-crisis measures by many states will be required, so a lot of work is ahead," Peskov said in the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" weekly show on the Rossiya-1 tv channel.

According to the United Nations' estimates, the world economy might shrink up to 1 percent in 2020 because of the pandemic. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said that even in the best-case scenario the world economy should not expect to grow more than 1.2 percent as opposed to 2.5 percent, as previously forecast. In the worst-case scenario, global output would contract by 0.9 percent.

The global toll of COVID-19 cases has now exceeded the landmark of one million cases and the death toll is close to 57,000, according to the Saturday update of the World Health Organization.