ATHENS — The Greek economy will contract in 2020 but will return to positive growth rates in 2021, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on Tuesday.

The IMF, in its World Economic Outlook report, said that the Greek economy was expected to contract by 9.5 pct this year and to grow by 4.1 pct in 2021.

The Fund expects that the country’s current account deficit will reach 7.7 pct of GDP in 2020, easing to 4.5 pct of GDP in 2021. The unemployment rate is projected to reach 19.9 pct of the workforce in 2020 and to ease to 18.3 pct next year, while the inflation rate will remain in negative territory, at -0.6 pct this year, returning to positive course in 2021 (0.7 pct).

The International Monetary Fund foresees a steep fall in international growth this year as the global economy struggles to recover from the pandemic-induced recession, its worst collapse in nearly a century.

The IMF estimated Tuesday that the global economy will shrink 4.4% for 2020. That would be the worst annual plunge since the Great Depression of the 1930s. By comparison, the international economy contracted by a far smaller 0.1% after the devastating 2008 financial crisis.

The monetary fund's forecast for 2020 in its latest World Economic Outlook does represent an upgrade of 0.8 percentage point from its previous forecast in June. The IMF attributed the slightly less dire forecast to faster-than-expected rebounds in some countries, notably China, and to government rescue aid that was enacted by the United States and other major industrial countries.

While forecasting a global contraction this year, after 2.8% growth in 2019, the IMF predicts a rebound to global growth of 5.2% next year, 0.2 percentage point lower than in its June forecast.

(Material from Associated Press was used in this report)