Coronavirus could damage global growth in 2020: IMF

coronavirus epidemic could dam global ecomic growth this year, IMF he said Sunday, but a sharp and rapid ecomic rebound could follow.

"re may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in 0.1-0.2 percent ," managing director of International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told Global Women's Forum in Dubai.

She said full impact of spreing disease that has alrey killed more than 1,600 people would depend on how quickly it was contained.

"I vise everybody t to jump to premature conclusions. re is still a great deal of uncertainty. We operate with scenarios, t yet with projections, ask me in 10 days," Georgieva said.

In its January update to World Ecomic Outlook, IMF lowered global ecomic growth forecast in 2020 by a 0.1 percent point to 3.3 per cent, following a 2.9 per cent growth previous year, lowest in a dece.

Georgieva said it was "too early" to assess full impact of epidemic but ackwledged that it h alrey affected sectors such as tourism and transportation.

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"It is too early to say because we don't yet quite kw what is nature of this virus. We don't kw how quickly China will be able to contain it. We don't kw wher it will spre to rest of world," she said.

If disease is "contained rapidly, re can be a sharp drop and a very rapid rebound", in what is kwn as V-shaped impact, she said.

Compared to impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, she said China's ecomy n me up just 8.0 per cent of global ecomy. w, that figure is 19 per cent.

She said tre agreement between United States and China, world's first and second ecomies, h reduced disease's impact on global ecomy.

But world should be concerned "about sluggish growth" impacted by uncertainty, said IMF chief.

"We are w stuck with low productivity growth, low ecomic growth, low interest rates and low inflation," she told Dubai forum, also attended by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and former British prime minister resa May. 

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