International Monetary Fund - March 2020
The world has changed dramatically in the three months since our last World Economic Outlook update on the global economy. A pandemic scenario had been raised as a possibility in previous economic policy discussions, but none of us had a meaningful sense of what it would look like on the ground and what it would mean for the economy. We now encounter a grim reality, where exponential growth of contagion means 100 infected individuals become 10,000 in a matter of a few days. Tragically, many human lives are being lost and the virus continues to spread rapidly across the globe. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the medical professionals and first responders who are working tirelessly to save lives.