The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects South Korea’s economy to contract 1.2 percent this year as it warned the global economy faced the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
This would mean the country’s first contraction since 1998 in the wake of the international bailout crisis, but nevertheless outperform the global economy that is expected to fall by 3 percent in 2020 in the virus-factored IMF forecast.
“It is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago,” – Gita Gopinath, Chief Economist, IMF
They are calling the current crisis ‘The Great Lockdown’ and commented that ‘this is a crisis is like no other’ and also stated that ‘The Great Lockdown’ will cause a recession far more painful than that followed the financial meltdown a decade ago.
The IMF said it expects the growth in the advanced economy group to retreat 6.1 percent this year and developing economies 1 percent. It suggested the euro zone economy to shrink by 7.5 percent this year, the United States 5.9 percent, and Japan 5.2 percent.
The IMF’s chief economist said the cumulative loss to the global GDP could amount to $9 trillion over this year and next year from the pandemic crisis, which is more than the economies of Germany and Japan combined.
