Global growth was brought to a screeching halt, as the impact of the unprecedented event dampened growth forecasts, induced financial market shocks, risk aversions and supply-chain disruptions, prompting broad-based monetary and fiscal responses. The coronavirus pandemic which emerged from Wuhan, China spread over 150 countries, claiming over 2.0mn lives so far, with rising numbers of international cases, that necessitated partial or complete lockdowns. Hence, trickling economic data recorded historic fallouts worse than the aftermath of the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects a 3.5% downturn in the global economy in 2020, with an expected rebound of 5.5% in 2021.
