International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed to deploy its full 1 trillion US Dollar lending capacity to support countries battling COVID-19 outbreak. Describing the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis like no other, International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday said, world is now in the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Georgieva told reporters at the start of the first ever virtual annual spring meeting of IMF and the World Bank in Washington, about its plans to double emergency financial assistance. The IMF Board has already approved debt relief for 25 of its poorest members. IMF chief expressed satisfaction that during the G20 Finance ministers discussion, there was unanimous support for the Fund to raise more capacity for concessional funding poor countries.