Global economy set for sharpest reversal since Great Depression: “The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns imposed by governments on both sides of the Atlantic have pushed the global economy into the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression, data released on Friday signalled. The US economy shed 710,000 jobs in early March, ending 113 months of continuous job growth, in official figures that were far worse than economists had been expecting….The head of the IMF has warned that the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic would be worse than the 2008 financial crisis. ‘This is a crisis like no other,’ said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, speaking at a conference organised by the World Health Organization on Friday. ‘Never in the history of the IMF have we witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill,’ she said. ‘It is way worse than the global financial crisis.’ Worse data was about to come in April, economists said, with many now forecasting double digit percentage declines in output in the second quarter as vast swaths of the world’s two most advanced economic zones shut down.”