IMF chief says Coronavirus crisis “humanity’s darkest hour”, doubles emergency funding

Terming the threat posed by COVID-19 is a “crisis like no other”, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has announced doubling of emergency funding for countries from the current $50 billion to up to $100 billion.

Hyderabad: At a time when countries across the world are battling the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic repercussions, with all major economies staring at an impending recession, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has confirmed the worst of fears by saying that the Coronavirus threat is a “crisis like no other” whose economic impact can be much worse than the 2008 financial crisis.

Georgieva, at a media briefing organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, said the crisis was nothing like the IMF had seen in 75 years. “This is humanity’s darkest hour,” she said.

As part of the economic measures taken by the IMF to deal with this crisis, Georgieva informed that the IMF has doubled the availability of emergency funding for countries from $50 billion to up to $100 billion.

Throwing light on the scale of the crisis, Georgieva said the IMF has been approached by a record number of 85 countries for emergency financing. “The demand for our financing has skyrocketed,” she said.

However, Georgieva hinted that the IMF would prioritize resources for developing countries and emerging markets. “The same way the virus hits vulnerable people with medical pre-conditions hardest, the economic crisis hits vulnerable economies the hardest.”

“We have a $1 trillion war chest and we are determined to use as much as necessary in protecting the economy from the scarring of this crisis,” she said, adding that debt obligations would also likely be eased for IMF’s poorest members.

Need for fully-funded health system

At the same briefing, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the need to have a fully-funded health system in place to fight both the virus and its economic impact.

Ghebreyesus called on all countries to provide full funding for public health measures like case-finding, testing, contact tracing, collecting data, and communication and information campaigns.

Ghebreyesus noted that several countries were providing free testing and care for coronavirus regardless of insurance, citizenship or residence status. “We encourage these measures. This is an unprecedented crisis, which demands an unprecedented response.”