IMF: Warning of worse-case outcomes should Covid-19 pandemic return

Queues in the middle of March at Intreo offices as people apply for Covid 19 unemployment payment. The IMF says 2021 could see numbers out of work increasing. Picture: Garry O’Neill

The IMF forecasts economic outcomes are predicated on the pandemic being brought under control but it also warns of “severe risks” that the health and economic outcomes will be worse should the Covid-19 virus return.

“The pandemic could prove more persistent than assumed in the baseline,” the funds says.