The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the world’s economy into a recession and   the situation is even worse than the 2009 crisis,the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday.

Managing Director of the IMF, Ms Kristalina Georgieva said a massive funding was now required to refloat the global economy.

“We have reassessed the prospect for growth for 2020 and 2021. It is now clear that we have entered a recession – as bad as or worse than in 2009,” Georgieva said at a press conference following a Conference Call of the IMF and Financial Committee (IMFC).

She added, “We do project recovery in 2021 – in fact, there may be a sizeable rebound, but only if we succeed with containing the virus – everywhere – and prevent liquidity problems from becoming a solvency issue.”

The IMF chief noted that IMFC, the governing body of the organisation representing 189 member countries, met earlier to discuss the threat posed to the world by coronavirus.

According to her, a major concern about the effect of COVID-19 on the global economy is the risk of a wave of bankruptcies and layoffs capable of eroding the fabric of the societies.

Georgieva, however, noted that many countries have taken measures to prevent this by addressing the crisis in their health sector.