Covid-19 crushing GDP growth, world moving towards recession: Fitch Ratings

Falling GDP in China is virtually unprecedented and, in the near term at least, these numbers look worse than most previous hypothetical 'hard-landing' scenarios

The coronavirus crisis is crushing global GDP growth, according to Fitch Ratings latest quarterly Global Economic Outlook.

"The level of world GDP is falling. For all intents and purposes we are in global recession territory," said Brian Coulton, Chief Economist at Fitch Ratings.

"We have nearly halved the Fitch baseline global growth forecast for 2020 -- to just 1.3 per cent from 2.5 per cent in December 2019. The revision leaves 2020 global GDP 850 billion dollars lower than in the previous forecast," he said.

"But we could very easily see an outright decline in global GDP this year if