IMF chief flags up grim global economic forecast

Kristalina Georgieva says Covid-19 pandemic has spawned 'economic crisis like no other'

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The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that all but a handful of the organisation's 189 member states will suffer falling standards of living this year as a result of the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s.

Kristalina Georgieva said the sudden onset of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the IMF's new forecasts for the world economy were going to be grim when released next week - and there was a risk that the impact could be even worse than currently expected. She said more than 170 countries will suffer a reversal of living standards in 2020.