THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has listed Nigeria as one of the countries to be severely hit by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fund predicts the annual percentage decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of -3.4 per cent.
According to the April World Economic Outlook, the IMF project global growth in 2020 to fall to -3 per cent, this is a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from January 2020, a major revision over a very short period.
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For the first time since the great depression both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are in recession.
According to the IMF, for this year growth in advanced economies is projected at -6.1 per cent while emerging market and developing economies with normal growth levels well above advanced economies are also projected to have negative growth rates of -1.0 per cent in 2020, and -2.2 per cent if you exclude China.
Income per capita is projected to shrink for over 170 countries, both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are expected to partially recover in 2021, the report showed.
The IMF said it is developing its one trillion-dollar lending capacity to support vulnerable countries, through rapid-disbursing emergency financing and debt service relief to the poorest member countries.
“We are calling on official bilateral creditors to do the same”.
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in huge human loss.
As countries implement necessary quarantines and social distancing practices to contain the pandemic, the world has been put in a Great Lockdown, the IMF said.
The magnitude and speed of collapse in the activity that has followed is unlike anything experienced in the lifetimes of many nations.
The ICIR has reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced six initial policy measures to contain the impacts of COVID-19 on the Nigerian economy.
The IMF has adviced that policymakers must also plan for the recovery, as containment measures come off, policies should shift swiftly to supporting demand, incentivizing firm hiring, and repairing balance sheets in the private and public sector to aid the recovery.