World economy

With much of the global economy now in some form of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, we expect world GDP to contract by about 7% in H1 2020. Activity is expected to rebound sharply in H2, but even so the severity of the shock is likely to lead to a permanent GDP loss for the global economy. Over 2020 as a whole, we now expect GDP to shrink by 2.8%, compared to our forecast for a 2.5% rise three months ago, before the coronavirus outbreak became widespread.