IMF Urges Governments To "Ensure Corporations Pay Fair Share Of Taxes" Tyler Durden Tue, 10/13/2020 - 19:00 In its latest batch of projections about the global economy, the International Monetary Fund has again projected a "deep recession" in 2020, which would be one of the worst annual plunges since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The report, released Tuesday, shows the agency expects global growth to plunge 4.4% this year, an upward revision of 0.8 percentage points compared with the June estimates in the World Economic Outlook report, said IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath. For 2021, the IMF sees world growth at 5.2%, down from June's 5.4% projection. h/t Bloomberg "The upward revision in the IMF's 2020 growth forecast reflects in particular better-than-projected second-quarter growth in the U.S. and the euro area, a stronger-than-anticipated return to growth in China and signs of a more rapid recovery in the third quarter," said Bloomberg. h/t Bloomberg Ahead of today's release, Bloomberg quoted Gopinath as saying: "So we continue to project a deep recession in 2020 with global growth projected to be -4.4%. This is a small upgrade relative to our June numbers. We expect growth to rebound partially in 2021, coming back to 5.2 percent. However, with the exception of China, all advanced economies and emerging and developing economies, excluding China we are projecting output will remain below 2019 levels well into 2021. Therefore, we see that the recovery from this catastrophic collapse will likely be long and even highly uncertain," she said. In today's report, Gopinath said that "the global economy is climbing out from the depths to which it had plummeted during the Great Lockdown in April... But with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread, many countries have slowed reopening and some are reinstating partial lockdowns to protect susceptible populations." She said the crisis is "far from over." This year's contraction will be the deepest since the Great Depression, with COVID-19 killing more than one million people and collapsing the global economy. As we've explained in recent weeks, severe wealth inequality imbalances are developing, as the poor are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer - the imbalance is directly connected with how governments and central banks distribute monetary and or fiscal stimulus, with much of it flowing to mega-corporations. IMF estimates at least 90 million people worldwide are set to fall into "extreme poverty" this year. Gopinath wrote in the report that economic recoveries "everywhere face difficult paths back to pre-pandemic activity levels." The IMF said a speedy recovery in China had been a surprise, but warned the global rebound remains vulnerable to setbacks. It noted that "prospects have worsened significantly in some developing countries where infections are rising rapidly." "Preventing further policy setbacks," the IMF said, "will require that policy support is not prematurely withdrawn." It warned that sovereign debt loads are set to rise sharply: "The global easing of monetary policy, while essential for the recovery, should be complemented with measures to prevent build-up of financial risks over the medium term, and central bank independence should be safeguarded at all costs. Needed fiscal spending and the output collapse have driven global sovereign debt levels to a record 100 percent of global GDP," the report said. As analysts on Wall Street reasses whether a Biden victory and Democratic Senate sweep would truly be such a negative for the market, the IMF has highlighted the importance of keeping the money tap flowing - at least in the near term. "While low interest rates alongside the projected rebound in growth in 2021 will stabilize debt levels in many countries, all will benefit from a medium-term fiscal framework to give confidence that debt remains sustainable. In the future, governments will likely need to raise the progressivity of their taxes while ensuring that corporations pay their fair share of taxes, alongside eliminating wasteful spending," the report said. That wording seems extremely similar to Democratic Party talking points...