People walk past the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C., the United States, July 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
-- China has seen a strong recovery after the first quarter lockdown, with growth revised up to 1.9 percent this year, "a rare positive figure in a sea of negatives," according to the IMF.
-- The world can learn three lessons from Asia's experience to curb the coronavirus. First, an early public health response; second, relaxing containment measures only after the virus has been suppressed and with appropriate post-lockdown policies in place; third, fiscal support has also been critical to reduce economic costs and underpin the recovery.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday revised down its 2020 forecast for the Asian economy to a contraction of 2.2 percent, calling it "the worst outcome for this region in living memory."
The latest forecast is a downgrade compared with the projection of a 1.6-percent contraction in June.
The IMF's latest Regional Economic Outlook shows that a recovery started in the third quarter, though growth engines are not all firing with the same strength across all countries, leading to a "multispeed recovery," Jonathan D. Ostry, acting director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, said during a virtual news conference.
The outlook varies by country depending on infection rates and containment measures, the scale and effectiveness of the policy response, reliance on contact-intensive activities, and reliance on external demand, according to the report.
Advanced economies, while still in recession, are expected to do somewhat better than expected in 2020, reflecting a faster pickup in activity following earlier exit from lockdowns, Ostry noted.
Australia will see a contraction of 4.2 percent in 2020, and Japan's economy will shrink by 5.3 percent. South Korea will contract by 1.9 percent, while New Zealand is expected to see a sharp contraction of 6.1 percent.
India's economy experienced a much sharper than expected contraction in the second quarter, and is expected to recover slowly in the coming quarters, according to the IMF report, which projected India's economy to contract by 10.3 percent this year.
