The coronavirus pandemic is messing with how economic data is produced, and making it hard to work out how badly it's hitting the global economy, the IMF says

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The coronavirus is skewing economic data and making it hard to collect, which is in turn making it difficult to understand the full scale of the virus' impact on the world economy, the International Monetary Fund said this week.

"Without reliable data, policymakers cannot assess how badly the pandemic is hurting people and the economy, nor can they properly monitor the recovery," the IMF said in a blog post.

The pandemic has likely thrust the global economy into a crippling recession.

The IMF said "innovative data collection methods" are needed to tackle the discrepancies in data and assess the extent of the crisis.

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COVID-19 is skewing economic data, meaning policymakers will struggle to correctly assess the damage done by the pandemic and type of recovery needed, the International Monetary Fund said this week.

In a blog post posted Tuesday, the IMF, said that the coronavirus has "disrupted the production of many key statistics," which is in turn likely to cause problems with policy making and assessing See the rest of the story at Business InsiderNOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first timeSee Also:May consumer confidence tops estimates as the US unwinds economic shutdowns5 economic statistics that show the financial devastation of the pandemic for average Americans5 charts show how the coronavirus crisis has dwarfed the Great Recession in just 2 months

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