The International Monetary Fund has sharply lowered its forecast for global growth this year because it envisions far more severe economic damage from the coronavirus than it did just two months ago.

The International Monetary Fund sees the world needing public investment of more than $20 trillion in the next two decades as nations spend on initiatives including improved healthcare systems, infrastructure and green technology.

WASHINGTON — Beaten down by the coronavirus outbreak, the world economy in 2020 will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecast.

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank appealed to their 189 member countries Oct. 18 to resolve widening disagreements on trade and other issues, warning that the divisions threatened to make the consequences of a global slowdown even worse.

The world is leaning less on its biggest economy to sustain the global recovery, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The emergence of protectionist forces could undermine a modest brightening of the global growth outlook and is putting severe strain on the post-World War II economic order, the International Monetary Fund said.

The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. growth this year, urging the Federal Reserve to lean toward modestly overshooting its inflation target in considering whether the economy can handle higher interest rates.

A prolonged period of slow growth has left the global economy more exposed to negative shocks and raised the risk that the world will slide into stagnation, the IMF warned.