Tremendous uncertainty remains on post-COVID-19 economic recovery - IMF Research Director
Jun 30, 2020
Washington [US], June 30 (Sputnik/ANI): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is unable to say with certainty how will the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic look like but the current rebound across the world is weaker than desired, IMF Research Director Gita Gopinath said.
"There is still tremendous uncertainty about what the path of recovery would look like," Gopinath told a live-stream event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday.
Gopinath said a slower recovery is coming up, especially with the major commodity exporters, after the big drop in oil prices and demand for travel.
"We've recovered from the March and April lows, but still the path for oil that we are projecting is lower than projected before this crisis. And so, these countries are going to have a much weaker recovery relative to other countries," Gopinath said.
Gopinath also said that the IMF's G20 debt relief initiative for the poorest countries will likely need to be extended beyond the end of this year.
Last week, the IMF slashed its already gloomy growth projections for the United States and other developed countries in 2020, saying it expected the global economy to contract by 4.9 percent this year.
The IMF said the global economy will take a $12 trillion hit from the novel coronavirus pandemic, adding that it could take two years for world output to return to 2019 levels. (Sputnik/ANI)
