The IMF revises its growth estimates for Italy in 2021 downwards. After a lower than expected contraction in 2020, when GDP fell by 9.2% compared to the -10.6% expected in October, the year will grow by 3.0%, or 2.2 percentage points lower than previous forecasts.
In 2022, GDP is estimated to grow by 3.6%, 1.0% more than the October estimates.
The IMF revises downward the growth estimates for 2021 of Germany, France and Spain.
The German locomotive is expected to grow by 3.5% this year (-0.7 percentage points compared to October's estimates) and by 3.1% in 2022 (unchanged).
The French GDP is expected to grow by 5.5% in 2021 (-0.5 points), to score + 4.1% in 2022 (+1.2 points).
For Spain, the IMF estimates GDP growing this year by 5.9% (-1.3 points) and by 4.7% in 2022 (+0.2).
The GDP of the Euroland will grow in 2021 less than expected, marking a + 4.2%, or 1 percentage point less than the October forecasts.
For 2022, growth was instead revised upwards by 0.5 points to 3.6%.
This was stated by the IMF, forecasting for the United States GDP to increase this year by 5.1%, or 2 percentage points more than the October estimates.
In 2022, US growth was instead revised down by 0.4 points compared to expectations of 2.5%.
The world economy is traveling faster than expected after contracting by 3.5% in 2020, less than the 4.4% forecast in October.
GDP will grow by 5.5% in 2021, 0.3 percentage points more than previous estimates.
For 2022, the Fund confirms growth of 4.2% (unchanged compared to previous estimates).
The recovery, however, warns the IMF, is "incomplete" with economic activity that "remains well below pre-pandemic levels" and subject to strong "uncertainty".
The overall losses for world production due to the coronavirus, compared to pre-pandemic forecasts, amount to 22 trillion dollars in the period 2020-2025.
This was stated by the chief economist of the IMF, Gita Gopinath, underlining that the global economic contraction of 2020, albeit lower than expected (-3.5% instead of -4.4% previously forecast) remains the worst since the Great Recession.
"150 countries in 2021 will have per capita incomes below the levels of 2019", adds Gopinath, estimating that in 2020-2021 about 90 million people will slide into extreme poverty.
"It is necessary to act quickly for a broad access to vaccines and medicines" against Covid to "correct the profound inequalities that exist at the moment".
This was stated by the chief economist of the IMF, Gita Gopinath, underlining how the new variants of the virus "remember how the pandemic did not end until it ended everywhere".
The Fund, points out, estimates that the end of the health crisis will increase global incomes by 9 trillion with benefits for all countries, including 4 trillion for advanced economies.
