The International Monetary Fund projects global GDP will shrink by 3% in 2020, the deepest recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. 

It's the IMF's first World Economic Outlook Report released since COVID-19 forced countries around the world to freeze their economies. 

The IMF is calling global restrictions to contain COVID-19, "the Great Lockdown."

CGTN interviewed Gita Gopinath, chief economist and director of the research department at the IMF, and Tobias Adrian, financial counsellor and director of the monetary and capital markets department at the IMF.  

They talked about the global economy and the current crisis. 

Gita says, "It's the worst (crisis) since the Great Depression and the characteristics of it are threefold. One is the magnitude.... The second is the speed. And the third is the uncertainty, tremendous uncertainty." 

Tobias said, "This might last two years... in the very optimistic scenario by the end of the year. The crisis is over. But in the bond, pessimistic scenario, this might last this year and well into next year. So there is a large degree of uncertainty."

He adds, "China has done amazingly well. And so that is really a tremendous success of Chinese policymakers, is to contain not just the health crisis, but also the financial system and the economic crisis." 

The IMF says the U.S. economy will contract by almost 6% this year and emerging markets and developing economies by a combined 1%. 

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe from COVID-19, is expected to see its economy shrink by more than 9%.  

According to the IMF, China's GDP will still grow in 2020, but only by 1.2%.  

The IMF is projecting 5.8% global growth for next year, but only if the pandemic fades away in the second half of 2020.

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