A third of the global economy will be in recession this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.
Kristalina Georgieva said 2023 will be “tougher” than last year as the US, EU and China see their economies slow.
It comes as the war in Ukraine, rising prices, higher interest rates and the spread of Covid in China weigh on the global economy.
In October the IMF cut its global economic growth outlook for 2023.
“We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession,” Ms Georgieva said on the CBS news programme Face the Nation.
Since then China has scrapped its zero Covid policy and started to reopen its economy, even as coronavirus infections have spread rapidly in the country.
“For the next couple of months, it would be tough for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative, the impact on the region will be negative, the impact on global growth will be negative,” she said.
The IMF is an international organisation with 190 member countries. They work together to try to stabilise the global economy. One of its key roles is to act as an early economic warning system.
Figures released over the weekend pointed to weakness in the Chinese economy at the end of 2022.
In the same month home prices in 100 cities fell for the sixth month in a row, according to a survey by one of the country’s largest independent property research firms, China Index Academy.
On Saturday, in his first public comments since the change in policy, President Xi Jinping called for more effort and unity as China enters what he called a “new phase”.(BBC)