IMF projects India to grow at 1.9% in 2020; world to enter 'worst recession' since 1930s

The International Monetary Fund has projected a growth rate for India of a meagre 1.9% for 2020, as the novel Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown ravages economic activity in every sector. The IMF also said the world at large will be in its "worst recession since the Great Depression" of the 1930s. The global money lender released its new World Economic Outlook on Tuesday.

According to the IMF, the global economy will plunge to -3.0% growth in 2020, only to rebound to 5.8% in 2021. Advanced economies like those in the West and East Asia will contract by a steep 6.1% in 2020 while emerging economies will see growth fall to -1.0%.

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Unexperienced collapse

Blaming the COVID-19 pandemic, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said, "The magnitude and speed of the collapse of activity that has followed are unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes. Many countries face a number of crises, a health crisis, a financial crisis, collapse in commodity prices especially for exporters and all of this interact in complex ways."

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