The World Bank says a protracted COVID-19 outbreak could cause South Korea's gross domestic product(GDP) to contract this year by nearly five percent more than its previous estimate. 

In its revised economic outlook on Monday, the institution projected China will post a meager zero-point-one percent growth in 2020 in the “lower-case” scenario, compared to the six-point-one percent growth the country enjoyed last year. 

On the premise that the rest of the countries reel from the coronavirus pandemic with the same intensity as China, the World Bank predicted South Korea’s GDP could further contract by three-point-86 percent from its previous outlook, which it did not make public. 

Under the same worst-case scenario, the U.S. GDP was projected to drop further by three-point-four percent, Europe's by three-point-85 percent and Japan's by four-point-57 percent.