The global coronavirus pandemic has sparked an economic “crisis like no other” sending world GDP plunging 4.9 per cent this year and wiping out $12 trillion over two years, the IMF said, according to AFP.

Worldwide business shutdowns destroyed hundreds of millions of jobs, and the prospects for recovery — along with the forecasts themselves — are steeped in “pervasive uncertainty” with the virus still rife, the IMF said in its updated World Economic Outlook.