The International Monetary Fund says the coronavirus crisis has caused a global recession.

The IMF Managing Director gave her verdict after a meeting on Friday of its Financial Committee that represents 189 countries.

That meeting followed another the day before with G20 leaders.

"We do project recovery in 2021," Kristalina Georgieva said. "In fact, there may be a sizeable rebound, but only if we succeed with containing the virus everywhere and prevent liquidity problems from becoming a solvency issue."

Although essential goods and services are still operating economic activity has basically fallen off a cliff.

The IMF is planning to double its financial capacity to alleviate the crisis.

It is asking countries in need of help to apply sooner rather than later in order to contain the damage.

The number of requests by countries seeking help from the IMF has been rising rapidly. Fifty low-income and 31 middle-income countries have approached the Fund for emergency financing so far.

Georgieva emphasized that the IMF is doing everything to respond to this extraordinary health crisis and help mitigate the economic fallout from it.