Coronavirus Wreaks Havoc on Economic Growth Prospects

The World Bank published its latest Global Economic Prospects report on Monday, providing us with another glimpse of the expected economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to its revised forecasts, the global economy will shrink by 5.2 percent this year, which would mark the deepest recession since World War II.

“This is a deeply sobering outlook, with the crisis likely to leave long-lasting scars and pose major global challenges,” said World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, who urged the global community to “unite to find ways to rebuild as robust a recovery as possible to prevent more people from falling into poverty and unemployment.”

While countries with high case and death counts and those relying heavily on tourism, global trade and commodity exports are expected to be hit hardest by the pandemic, this is a truly global crisis affecting more countries than any other economic downturn since 1870, according to the World Bank. As our chart shows, the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak is expected to be severe across the globe, with no regions spared. Compared to its January 2020 projection, the World Bank revised its global growth estimate by 7.7 percentage points, with the Euro Area and Brazil suffering the biggest hit to their economic growth prospects.