The IMF warns that the global recovery is not assured while the pandemic continues to spread.
The report says that most economies will suffer lasting damage. There is likely to be what IMF calls "a major setback to living standards relative to what was expected before the pandemic".
The two spheres to suffer the most are the extreme poverty and inequality. The IMF warns that extreme poverty is likely to rise for the first time in more than twenty years. Inequality is also on the rise, particularly affecting women, people with precarious employment, and those with relatively lower educational attainment.
The outcome would have been weaker, the IMF says, had it not been for the sizable response from governments and central banks that maintained household incomes, protected cash flow for firms, and supported lending.
