Japan’s Motegi predicts a major world crisis

As countries around the world have halted or limited production amid efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, the pandemic is anticipated to shave 2.8 percent off the global economic output in 2020. Oxford Economics forecasting firm predicted, with the overall downturn to be more severe than the post-financial crisis 1.1 percent drop in 2009.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the global economy facing the most severe crisis since World War II, according to Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

"The impact on the international economy, as well as the Japanese economy, is severe; the global economy is facing its most severe crisis since the war," Report quotes Kyodo News agency as saying.

A revision of the government's initial plan of 108 trillion yen, approved earlier this month, the rescue package includes direct payments to citizens and a bailout of struggling businesses, among other measures, as a state of emergency was declared in Japan last week until at least May 6.

However, some Japanese experts believe that this will not be enough, with unemployment in the country forecast to soar to 2.72 percent in the fourth quarter, which is 1.56 million more people out of a job than a year earlier.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities announced an outbreak of pneumonia in China's Wuhan, which causative agent is a new type of coronavirus officially named COVID-19.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus a pandemic.