At the dawn of 2020, the global economy recorded its tenth year of unprecedented uninterrupted growth, while economists and government financial officials predicted that such dynamics would continue for years to come. But then came a mysterious virus that was first seen in China in December 2019 - a new type of coronavirus that has spread rapidly across the globe. Its appearance dispelled hopes for a continuation of the economic rally and provoked the sharpest recession in decades. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the global economy shrank by 4.4% in 2020. For comparison, in 2009, when the world last faced a financial crisis, global GDP fell by 0.1.