PANDEMIC DRIVES WORST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN 150 YEARS: WORLD BANK

The coronavirus pandemic inflicted a "swift and massive shock" that has caused the broadest collapse of the global economy since 1870 despite unprecedented government support, the World Bank said on Monday (Tuesday, June 9, 2020 in Manila), the Agence France Press (AFP) reported.

The world economy is expected to contract by 5.2 percent this year -- the worst recession in 80 years -- but the sheer number of countries suffering economic losses means the scale of the downturn is worse than any recession in 150 years, the World Bank said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.

"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. The depth of the crisis will drive between 70 million and 100 million people into extreme poverty -- worse than the prior estimate of 60 million, she told reporters.

Although China is nearly alone in seeing modest growth this year, the depth of the slowdown in the world's second-largest economy will hinder recovery prospects in developing nations, especially commodity exporters, the World Bank warned. While China will see GDP rise just one percent, the World Bank said, the rest of the forecasts are grim: US -6.1 percent, eurozone -9.1 percent, Japan -6.1 percent, Brazil -8 percent, Mexico -7.5 percent and India -3.2 percent. And things could get worse, meaning the forecasts will be revised even lower, the bank warned. Though dramatic, the current forecast falls short of the Great Depression, which saw a global contraction of 14.5 percent from 1930 to 1932, while the post-war downturn in 1945-1946 was 13.8 percent, according to the World Bank.