Global economy is expected to shrink this year

WASHINGTON - The world economy is likely to shrink this year for the first time in six decades.

The International Monetary Fund projects a 1.3 percent drop in a dour new forecast. That could leave at least 10 million more people around the world jobless, some private economists say.

The IMF, in its latest World Economic Outlook, says: ``By any measure, this downturn represents by far the deepest global recession since the Great Depression.''

The new forecast of a decline in global economic activity for 2009 is much weaker than the 0.5 percent growth the IMF had estimated in January.
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