COVID-19 to hit global economies badly.

ISLAMABAD -- The deadly COVID-19 continues its catastrophic journey by hitting the global economies hard bringing about serious financial downturn and negatively impacting the projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of all the sound economies, including those of the developing countries like Pakistan.

With continuous rise in the health and human toll, the economic damage to different sectors across the globe has come as a major shock for all the countries. This downward trend is said to have attributed to the total global GDP loss of $9 trillion. This economic snapshot reflects the economic outlook of many countries. Though Pakistan still fares well when compared with the global projected figures.

According to available data, the projected change in GDP of various countries in the year 2020 as compared to 2019 would remain as follows in case no second wave of the coronavirus emerges:

UK -11.5 per cent, France -11.4 per cent, Italy -11.3 per cent, Spain -11.1 per cent, Euro area -9.1 per cent, Russia -8 per cent Canada -8 per cent, Brazil -7.4 per cent, US -7.3 per cent, Germany -6.6 per cent, Japan -6 per cent, India -3.7 per cent and China -2.6 per cent.

Comparing with the above numbers, Pakistan's GDP next year is estimated to stand around - 0.4. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated to have faced Rs3 trillion loss. The GDP was expected to increase by three per cent with the support of economic policies, but it would now go down by -0.4pc. Further reliable figures revealed that the United States' GDP during the current quarter was down by 48 per cent and that of the United Kingdom by 20.4 per cent in the month of April alone.

The European Union's GDP, which is 20 per cent of the global GDP, saw its sharpest decline in the last 14 years. According to the World Bank's latest report, the baseline forecast envisions a 5.2 percent contraction in the global GDP in 2020, using market exchange rate weights-the deepest global recession in decades, despite the extraordinary efforts of governments to counter the downturn with fiscal and monetary policy support.

The pandemic is expected to plunge most countries into recession in 2020, with per capita income contracting in the largest fraction of countries globally since 1870. Advanced economies are projected to shrink by 7 percent.

'Every region is subject to substantial growth downgrades. East Asia and the Pacific will grow...

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