Covid-19 Pandemic Causing Worst Year For World Economy since Great Depression but Spain Hoping for Quick Upturn

THE world economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says in its latest forecast.

As countries face up to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the IMF said that it expects the global economy to shrink by 3 per cent this year – far worse than its 0.1 per cent dip in the 2009 recession – before rebounding in 2021 with 5.8 per cent growth.

It acknowledges, though, that prospects for a rebound next year are clouded by uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.

Spain’s government take on the IMF forecast was that the the crisis “would be intense, but short-lived.”

In a statement, it pointed to the fact that the IMF expected the rebound to begin already in the last quarter of this year, “with an important recovery in 2021, confirming that “we are talking about an intense crisis but of short duration.”