India To Grow At 1.9% This Year, Global Growth To Shrink By 3%, Forecasts IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected India's growth rate at 1.9 per cent for 2020, while also predicting a global recession due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, IMF said the global economy might shrink by 3 per cent during 2020 in a stunning coronavirus-driven collapse of activity that will mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The forecast also mentioned that Asian powerhouses India and China are likely to narrowly avoid recession this year and are poised to bounce back strongly in 2021 if the coronavirus is contained.

The pandemic has hammered the world economy, with millions of jobs lost and businesses shut because of unprecedented lockdown measures to slow the spread of the disease.

India, Asia's third-biggest economy, is expected to grow at 7.4 per cent next year, according to IMF. As far as China is concerned, IMF predicted a growth of 1.2 per cent growth, its slowest expansion in more than four decades.

"Other regions are projected to experience severe slowdowns or outright contracts in economic activity," IMF said.