A new report by the International Monetary Funds (IMF) has shown that Greece's economic prospects in 2020 and 2021 remain bleak because of the COVID-19 pandemic after affects.
"The poor are getting poorer with over 90 million people expected to fall into extreme poverty just this year,” said IMF chief economist, who warned of unequal and highly uncertain reorganization.
The Greek and world economy are black according to the estimates in the IMF report on the World Economic Outlook published in the framework of the Organization's Annual Meeting.
In particular, for the Greek economy, a recession of 9.5% is projected in 2020 and unemployment is expected to rise to 19.9%, with an improvement in 2021, which is estimated to decline to 18.3%.
The current account deficit will reach 7.7% of GDP in 2020 and will fall to 4.5% of GDP in 2021.
For 2021 , the Fund estimates that the Greek economy will return to growth with 4.1% and inflation will be positive by 0.7% from the 0.6% deflation projected for 2020.
In terms of the global economy, a 4.4% recession is forecast for 2020, with the chief economist of the Fund, Gita Gopinat, expressing her concern about the impact of the ongoing health crisis on the global economy.
“We are projecting a somewhat less severe though still deep recession in 2020, relative to our June forecast,” said chief economist Gopinath in a foreword to the October revision of the World Economic Outlook.
“The revision is driven by second-quarter GDP outturns in large advanced economies, which were not as negative as we had projected,” she added, citing China’s stronger-than-expected return to growth as a key driver.
“The poor are getting poorer with over 90 million people expected to fall into extreme poverty just this year,” said Gopinath during a virtual presentation on Tuesday. “Policies for the next stage of the crisis must see lasting improvements and create a prosperous future for all.”
“In the second quarter the recovery in the US came sooner than expected [and] quarter three has been strong as well,” despite a resurge in coronavirus cases, Gopinath said, adding that the projection still remains in negative territory of minus 4.3 percent.