Goldman Sachs sees 1% drop in global GDP due to ‘coronacrisis’

LONDON: Goldman Sachs said today it expects global real gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by about 1% in 2020, a sharper economic decline than in the year following the 2008 global financial crisis.

Global governments have been taking unprecedented measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak which is threatening to spark a worldwide economic contraction.

“The coronacrisis – or more precisely, the response to that crisis – represents a physical (as opposed to financial) constraint on economic activity that is unprecedented in postwar history,” the investment bank said in a note to its clients.

It sees the real GDP in advanced economies contracting “very sharply” in the second quarter, including a 24% drop in the United States, a whopping two-and-a-half times as large as the previous postwar record. – March 23, 2020, Reuters

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