The head of the International Monetary Fund said Friday the recession sparked by the coronavirus pandemic is “way worse” than the 2008 global recession.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva described the situation as “a crisis like no other.”
“Never in the history of the IMF have we witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill,” she said.
“We are now in recession, it is way worse than the global financial crisis and it is a crisis that requires all of us to come together."
Georgieva said 90 countries have already approached the institution for emergency financing.
She called on countries to prioritize health expenditures and to make sure doctors, nurses and other health workers are paid.
The world’s most fragile countries must be protected, she urged, noting that “$90 billion have flown out” and damaged emerging economies.
The IMF has received requests for some $20 billion in emergency funding from an unprecedented 85 countries, and has begun disbursing the first amounts to countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Honduras and Rwanda.
The Fund plans to double its emergency funds to $100 billion from $50 billion, and its members have acted to shore up its overall lending capacity of $1 trillion.
More than 1 million people have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 53,000 have died, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.
