Go ask China! -More than 90 countries - nearly half the International Monetary Fund's 189 members - have asked for emergency funding from the Fund to respond to the pandemic The coronavirus pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and plunged the world into a recession that will be “way worse” than the global financial crisis a decade ago, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.  IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, speaking at a rare joint news conference with the leader of the World Health Organization, called on advanced economies to step up their efforts to help emerging markets and developing countries survive the economic and health impact of the pandemic. “This is a crisis like no other,” she told some 400 reporters on a video conference call. “We have witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill. We are now in recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis” of 2008-2009. More than 1 million people have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 53,000 have died, a Reuters tally showed on Friday. Georgieva that the IMF was working with the World Bank and WHO to advance their call for China and other official bilateral creditors to suspend debt collections from the poorest countries for at least a year until the pandemic subsides. She said China had engaged “constructively” on the issue, and the IMF would work a specific proposal in coming weeks with the Paris Club of creditor nations, the Group of 20 major economies and the World Bank for review at the annual Spring Meetings, which will be held online in about two weeks.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-imf/global-downturn-due-to-coronavirus-way-worse-than-global-financial-crisis-imf-idUSKBN21L318