A gloomy assessment from the International Monetary Fund which says that most of the world’s developed countries are at an economic standstill or on the brink of recession.

John Lipsky, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, also said that international policy-makers need to take aggressive and coordinated action to avert a deep global downturn.

Lipsky said more financial institutions will fail, and stressed that a systemic failure must be avoided.

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