The International Monetary Fund is forecasting a somewhat less severe recession than it predicted in June. In its latest report, the IMF revised its forecast for global growth to negative 4.4 percent this year. A less severe contraction than the negative 5.2 percent it had forecast in June, but still on track for the worst performance since the Great Depression. 

Next year’s world downgrade is less than this year’s upgrade. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF has said, the global economy is still in deep recession and the risk of a worse outcome than in its new forecast is sizable.  IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath in a foreword to the report, said, unprecedented fiscal, monetary, and regulatory responses to the crisis had kept economies from plunging deeper into recession.

However, she warned that the ascent out of this calamity is likely to be long, uneven, and highly uncertain. Employment remains well below pre-pandemic levels and the labour market has become more polarised with low-income workers, youth, and women being harder hit, the IMF chief economist added.