(Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said it expects a global recession this year that will be at least as bad as the downturn during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, followed by a recovery in 2021.
Nearly 80 countries have asked the Washington-based IMF for emergency finance, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement Monday following a conference call of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers. Georgieva said the fund strongly supports extraordinary fiscal actions already taken by many countries to boost health systems and protect workers and businesses.
“We welcome the moves of major central banks to ease monetary policy,” she said in the statement. “These bold efforts are not only in the interest of each country, but of the global economy as a whole. Even more will be needed, especially on the fiscal front.”
The fund said it’s working closely with other international financial institutions to provide a strong coordinated response, and reiterated that it’s ready to deploy all of its $1 trillion lending capacity.
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