The global economy is projected to contract 3.0 percent in 2020 from a year before due to the coronavirus pandemic, which would mark the worst setback since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.
The IMF slashed its projection by 6.3 percentage points from its estimate in January, when the spread of the coronavirus was at an early stage in China. But the global economy could bounce back if the epidemic recedes in the second half of this year, with the IMF projecting 5.8 percent growth next year.
The Japanese economy is projected to contract by 5.2 percent, its worst downturn since 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers the previous year.