IMF slashes its forecasts for the global economy and warns of soaring debt levels

The IMF (International Monetary Fund) also downgraded its GDP (The Economy) forecast for 2021.

The fund cautioned that the forecasts are surrounded with unprecedented uncertainty.

The United States (Economy) is expected to contract by 8% this year. The IMF had estimated a contraction of 5.9% in April.

The International Monetary Fund slashed its economic forecasts once again on Wednesday and warned that public finances will deteriorate significantly as governments attempt to combat the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast,” the IMF said Wednesday in its World Economic Outlook update.

“The steep decline in activity comes with a catastrophic hit to the global labor market,” the IMF said Wednesday, indicating that the global decline in work hours in the second quarter of the year is likely to be equivalent to a loss of more than 300 million full-time jobs.