The world is expected to see a $28 trillion in output losses over the coming five years with a partial economic recovery estimated at 5.2 percent projected for 2021, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva unveiled.

Georgieva made her comments during a virtual press briefing held on Wednesday on the side lines of the IMF’s and the World Bank Group’s annual meetings that kicked off on Monday.

Georgieva stressed that the global recovery will witness a long journey to reach pre-pandemic levels.

She also disclosed that speeding up efforts to reach a vaccine against the virus is expected to add $9 trillion to global income through 2025, which will definitely narrow the financial gap between advanced countries, and the middle and low-income countries.

“Expanding in public investments in digital transformation, green economy, education and health is also crucial to reach global recovery, which is expected to add millions of jobs and support workers in the transition phase from the ongoing crisis up until reaching the recovery”, said Georgieva.

She noted that there are three priorities that all countries should focus on to reach recovery rapidly, these include protecting live hoods, building more resilient and inclusive economies, and dealing with the debt that is expected to record 100 percent of the global GDP in 2021.

Georgieva called on all policy makers to continue extending grants, reliefs and finances.

She also reveals that the G20 is expected to extend the debt service suspension initiative for an extra six months amid the ongoing crisis.

For the MENA region, Georgieva unveiled that the IMF has extended $50 billion in assistance to address the crisis, adding that the region has been hit severely by the pandemic and few number of its countries will see a positive growth in 2020 and 2021.

She added that the region however, in general,  will witness a -4 percent decline in its growth in 2020, but the condition is expected to get worse in 2021 as the growth is projected at only 2 percent in 2021.

As for Africa, Georgieva illustrated that the continent is experiencing a $1 trillion financial gap and is expected to see a contraction in its growth by 3 per cent in 2020, and will witness a growth rate of 3 per cent in 2021.