Global Economy in Worst Recession

The global economy which has plunged into a severe contraction, will shrink by 5.2 per cent this year due to the massive shock of the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown measures to contain it, the World Bank said.  The COVID-19 recession is the first since 1870 to be triggered solely by a pandemic. For many emerging markets and developing countries, however, effective financial support and mitigation measures are particularly hard to achieve because a substantial share of employment is in informal sectors, the president of the Washington-based multilateral lender said. Economic activity among advanced economies is anticipated to shrink by 7 per cent in 2020 as domestic demand and supply, trade and finance have been severely disrupted. Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) are expected to shrink by 2.5 per cent this year, their first contraction as a group in at least 60 years.