IMF Projects Stronger 2021 Global Economic Growth Amid Pandemic Rebound

The International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook now sees world growth of 6.0 percent this year after the contraction of 3.3 percent in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accelerated vaccinations and a flood of government spending, especially in the United States, have boosted the outlook for the global economy, but more must be done to prevent permanent scars, the IMF said Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook now sees world growth of 6.0 percent this year after the contraction of 3.3 percent in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic -- the worst peacetime downturn since the Great Depression a century before. Rapid government responses prevented a much worse outcome, a collapse that could have been "at least three times as large," IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said. The United States, which deployed another $1.9 trillion last month, is expected to grow by 6.4 percent, among the fastest expansions in the world and 1.3 points higher than the January forecast.