The world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned. Angel Gurría, OECD secretary general, said the economic shock was already bigger than the financial crisis.

He told the BBC it was “wishful thinking” to believe that countries would bounce back quickly. The OECD has called on governments to rip up spending rules to ensure speedy testing and treatment of the virus. Mr Gurría said a recent warning that a serious outbreak could halve global growth to 1.5% already looked too optimistic.

While the number of job losses and company failures remains uncertain, Mr Gurría said countries would be dealing with the economic fallout “for years to come”. He said many of the world’s biggest economies would fall into recession in the coming months – defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline.(BBC)…[+]