Economic data available at the time of the April 2020 WEO forecast indicated an unprecedented decline in global activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data releases since then suggest even deeper downturns than previously projected for several economies.
The pandemic has worsened in many countries, leveled off in others. Following the release of the April 2020 WEO, the pandemic rapidly intensified in a number of emerging market and developing economies, necessitating stringent lockdowns and resulting in even larger disruptions to activity than forecast. In others, recorded infections and mortality have instead been more modest on a per capita basis, although limited testing implies considerable uncertainty about the path of the pandemic. In many advanced economies, the pace of new infections and hospital intensive care occupancy rates have declined thanks to weeks of lockdowns and voluntary distancing.
Synchronized, deep downturn. First-quarter GDP was generally worse than expected (the few exceptions include, for example, Chile, China, India, Malaysia, and Thailand, among emerging markets, and Australia, Germany, and Japan, among advanced economies). High-frequency indicators point to a more severe contraction in the second quarter, except in China, where most of the country had reopened by early April.
Consumption and services output have dropped markedly. In most recessions, consumers dig into their savings or rely on social safety nets and family support to smooth spending, and consumption is affected relatively less than investment. But this time, consumption and services output have also dropped markedly. The pattern reflects a unique combination of factors: voluntary social distancing, lockdowns needed to slow transmission and allow health care systems to handle rapidly rising caseloads, steep income losses, and weaker consumer confidence. Firms have also cut back on investment when faced with precipitous demand declines, supply interruptions, and uncertain future earnings prospects. Thus, there is a broad-based aggregate demand shock, compounding near-term supply disruptions due to lockdowns.
Mobility remains depressed. Globally, lockdowns were at their most intense and widespread from about mid-March through mid-May. As economies have gradually reopened, mobility has picked up in some areas but generally remains low compared to pre-virus levels, suggesting people are voluntarily reducing exposure to one another. Mobility data from cellphone tracking, for example, indicate that activity in retail, recreation, transit stations, and workplaces remains depressed in most countries, although it appears to be returning to baseline in certain areas.
Severe hit to the labor market. The steep decline in activity comes with a catastrophic hit to the global labor market. Some countries (notably in Europe) have contained the fallout with effective short-term work schemes. Nonetheless, according to the International Labour Organization, the global decline in work hours in 2020:Q1 compared to 2019:Q4 was equivalent to the loss of 130 million full-time jobs. The decline in 2020:Q2 is likely to be equivalent to more than 300 million full-time jobs. Where economies have been reopening, activity may have troughed in April—as suggested, for example, by the May employment report for the United States, where furloughed workers are returning to work in some of the sectors most affected by the lockdown.
IThe hit to the labor market has been particularly acute for low-skilled workers who do not have the option of working from home. Income losses also appear to have been uneven across genders, with women among lower-income groups bearing a larger brunt of the impact in some countries. Of the approximately 2 billion informally employed workers worldwide, the International Labour Organization estimates close to 80 percent have been significantly affected.
Contraction in global trade. The synchronized nature of the downturn has amplified domestic disruptions around the globe. Trade contracted by close to –3.5 percent (year over year) in the first quarter, reflecting weak demand, the collapse in cross-border tourism, and supply dislocations related to shutdowns (exacerbated in some cases by trade restrictions).
Weaker inflation. Average inflation in advanced economies had dropped about 1.3 percentage points since the end of 2019, to 0.4 percent (year over year) as of April 2020, while in emerging market economies it had fallen 1.2 percentage points, to 4.2 percent. Downward price pressure from the decline in aggregate demand, together with the effects of lower fuel prices, seems to have more than offset any upward cost-push pressure from supply interruptions so far.
Policy Countermeasures Have Limited Economic Damage and Lifted Financial Sentiment
Some bright spots mitigate the gloom. Following the sharp tightening during January–March, financial conditions have eased for advanced economies and, to a lesser extent, for emerging market economies, also reflecting the policy actions discussed below.
Sizable fiscal and financial sector countermeasures deployed in several countries since the start of the crisis have forestalled worse near-term losses. Reduced-work-hour programs and assistance to workers on temporary furlough have kept many from outright unemployment, while financial support to firms and regulatory actions to ensure continued credit provision have prevented more widespread bankruptcies (see Annex 1 and the June 2020 Fiscal Monitor Database of Country Fiscal Measures, which discuss fiscal measures amounting to about $11 trillion that have been announced worldwide, as well as the April 2020 WEO and the IMF Policy Tracker on Responses to COVID-19, which provide a broader list of country-specific measures).
Swift and, in some cases, novel actions by major central banks (such as a few emerging market central banks launching quantitative easing for the first time and some advanced economy central banks significantly increasing the scale of asset purchases) have enhanced liquidity provision and limited the rise in borrowing costs (see the June 2020 GFSR Update). Moreover, swap lines for several emerging market central banks have helped ease dollar liquidity shortages. Portfolio flows into emerging markets have recovered after the record outflows in February-March and hard currency bond issuance has strengthened for those with stronger credit ratings. Meanwhile, financial regulators’ actions—including modification of bank loan repayment terms and release of capital and liquidity buffers—have supported the supply of credit.
Stability in the oil market has also helped lift sentiment. West Texas Intermediate oil futures, which in April had sunk deep into negative territory for contracts expiring in the early summer, have risen in recent weeks to trade in a stable range close to the current spot price.
Exchange rate changes since early April have reflected these developments. As of mid-June, the US dollar had depreciated by close to 4 percent in real effective terms (after strengthening by over 8 percent between January and early April). Currencies that had weakened substantially in previous months have appreciated since April—including the Australian dollar and the Norwegian krone, among advanced economy currencies, and the Indonesian rupiah, Mexican peso, Russian ruble, and South African rand, among emerging market currencies.
Considerations for the Forecast
The developments discussed in the previous section help shape the key assumptions for the global growth forecast, in particular with regard to activity disruptions due to the pandemic, commodity prices, financial conditions, and policy support.
Disruptions to activity in the forecast baseline. Based on downside surprises in the first quarter and the weakness of high-frequency indicators in the second quarter, this updated forecast factors in a larger hit to activity in the first half of 2020 and a slower recovery path in the second half than envisaged in the April 2020 WEO. For economies where infections are declining, the slower recovery path in the updated forecast reflects three key assumptions: persistent social distancing into the second half of 2020, greater scarring from the larger-than-anticipated hit to activity during the lockdown in the first and second quarters, and a negative impact on productivity as surviving businesses enhance workplace safety and hygiene standards. For economies still struggling to control infection rates, the need to continue lockdowns and social distancing will take an additional toll on activity. An important assumption is that countries where infections have declined will not reinstate stringent lockdowns of the kind seen in the first half of the year, instead relying on alternative methods if needed to contain transmission (for instance, ramped-up testing, contact tracing, and isolation). The risk section below considers alternative scenarios, including one featuring a repeat outbreak in 2021.
Policy support and financial conditions. The projection factors in the impact of the sizable fiscal countermeasures implemented so far and anticipated for the rest of the year. With automatic stabilizers also allowed to operate and provide further buffers, overall fiscal deficits are expected to widen significantly and debt ratios to rise over 2020–21. Major central banks are assumed to maintain their current settings throughout the forecast horizon to the end of 2021. More generally, financial conditions are expected to remain approximately at current levels for both advanced and emerging market economies Commodity prices. The assumptions on fuel prices are broadly unchanged from the April 2020 WEO. Average petroleum spot prices per barrel are estimated at $36.20 in 2020 and $37.50 in 2021. Oil futures curves indicate that prices are expected to increase thereafter toward $46, still about 25 percent below the 2019 average. Nonfuel commodity prices are expected to rise marginally faster than assumed in the April 2020 WEO.
Deep Downturn in 2020, Sluggish Turnaround in 2021
Global growth is projected at –4.9 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 WEO forecast (Table 1). Consumption growth, in particular, has been downgraded for most economies, reflecting the larger-than-anticipated disruption to domestic activity. The projections of weaker private consumption reflect a combination of a large adverse aggregate demand shock from social distancing and lockdowns, as well as a rise in precautionary savings. Moreover, investment is expected to be subdued as firms defer capital expenditures amid high uncertainty. Policy support partially offsets the deterioration in private domestic demand. 8590951001051101152019:Q119:Q219:Q319:Q420:Q120:Q220:Q320:Q421:Q121:Q221:Q321:Q4Source: IMF staff estimates.World Advanced economiesEmerging market and developing economies excluding ChinaChinaFigure 1. Quarterly World GDP(2019:Q1 = 100)
In the baseline, global activity is expected to trough in the second quarter of 2020, recovering thereafter (Figure 1). In 2021 growth is projected to strengthen to 5.4 percent, 0.4 percentage point lower than the April forecast. Consumption is projected to strengthen gradually next year, and investment is also expected to firm up, but to remain subdued. Global GDP for the year 2021 as a whole is forecast to just exceed its 2019 level.
Uncertainty. Similarly to the April 2020 WEO projections, there is pervasive uncertainty around this forecast. The forecast depends on the depth of the contraction in the second quarter of 2020 (for which complete data are not yet available) as well as the magnitude and persistence of the adverse shock. These elements, in turn, depend on several uncertain factors, including
- The length of the pandemic and required lockdowns
- Voluntary social distancing, which will affect spending
- Displaced workers’ ability to secure employment, possibly in different sectors
- Scarring from firm closures and unemployed workers exiting the workforce, which may make it more difficult for activity to bounce back once the pandemic fades
- The impact of changes to strengthen workplace safety—such as staggered work shifts, enhanced hygiene and cleaning between shifts, new workplace practices relating to proximity of personnel on production lines—which incur business costs
- Global supply chain reconfigurations that affect productivity as companies try to enhance their resilience to supply disruptions
The extent of cross-border spillovers from weaker external demand as well as funding shortfalls
- Eventual resolution of the current disconnect between asset valuations and prospects for economic activity (as highlighted in the June 2020 GFSR Update)
Growth in the advanced economy group is projected at –8.0 percent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points lower than in the April 2020 WEO. There appears to have been a deeper hit to activity in the first half of the year than anticipated, with signs of voluntary distancing even before lockdowns were imposed. This also suggests a more gradual recovery in the second half as fear of contagion is likely to continue. Synchronized deep downturns are foreseen in the United States (–8.0 percent); Japan (–5.8 percent); the United Kingdom (–10.2 percent); Germany (–7.8 percent); France (–12.5 percent); Italy and Spain (–12.8 percent). In 2021 the advanced economy growth rate is projected to strengthen to 4.8 percent, leaving 2021 GDP for the group about 4 percent below its 2019 level.
Among emerging market and developing economies, the hit to activity from domestic disruptions is projected closer to the downside scenario envisaged in April, more than offsetting the improvement in financial market sentiment. The downgrade also reflects larger spillovers from weaker external demand. The downward revision to growth prospects for emerging market and developing economies over 2020–21 (2.8 percentage points) exceeds the revision for advanced economies (1.8 percentage points). Excluding China, the downward revision for emerging market and developing economies over 2020–21 is 3.6 percentage points.
Overall, growth in the group of emerging market and developing economies is forecast at –3.0 percent in 2020, 2 percentage points below the April 2020 WEO forecast. Growth among low-income developing countries is projected at –1.0 percent in 2020, some 1.4 percentage points below the April 2020 WEO forecast, although with differences across individual countries. Excluding a few large frontier economies, the remaining group of low-income developing countries is projected to contract by –2.2 percent in 2020.
For the first time, all regions are projected to experience negative growth in 2020. There are, however, substantial differences across individual economies, reflecting the evolution of the pandemic and the effectiveness of containment strategies; variation in economic structure (for example, dependence on severely affected sectors, such as tourism and oil); reliance on external financial flows, including remittances; and precrisis growth trends. In China, where the recovery from the sharp contraction in the first quarter is underway, growth is projected at 1.0 percent in 2020, supported in part by policy stimulus. India’s economy is projected to contract by 4.5 percent following a longer period of lockdown and slower recovery than anticipated in April. In Latin America, where most countries are still struggling to contain infections, the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, are projected to contract by 9.1 and 10.5 percent, respectively, in 2020. The disruptions due to the pandemic, as well as significantly lower disposable income for oil exporters after the dramatic fuel price decline, imply sharp recessions in Russia (–6.6 percent), Saudi Arabia (–6.8 percent), and Nigeria (–5.4 percent), while South Africa’s performance (–8.0 percent) will be severely affected by the health crisis.
In 2021 the growth rate for emerging market and developing economies is projected to strengthen to 5.9 percent, largely reflecting the rebound forecast for China (8.2 percent). The growth rate for the group, excluding China, is expected to be –5.0 percent in 2020 and 4.7 percent in 2021, leaving 2021 GDP for this subset of emerging market and developing economies slightly below its 2019 level.
Global trade will suffer a deep contraction this year of –11.9 percent, reflecting considerably weaker demand for goods and services, including tourism. Consistent with the gradual pickup in domestic demand next year, trade growth is expected to increase to 8 percent.
Inflation outlook. Inflation projections have generally been revised downward, with larger cuts typically in 2020 and for advanced economies. This generally reflects a combination of weaker activity and lower commodity prices, although in some cases partially offset by the effect of exchange rate depreciation on import prices. Inflation is expected to rise gradually in 2021, consistent with the projected pickup in activity. Nonetheless, the inflation outlook remains muted, reflecting expectations of persistently weak aggregate demand.
