The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday said global growth will collapse 4.4% this year, less than previously expected, though the outlook is plagued by uncertainty amidst the ongoing pandemic.

Massive injections of government aid kept economies from plunging further, though growth in 2021 is expected to be slightly slower than forecast in June, according to the Washington-based crisis lender’s World Economic Outlook.

The IMF upgraded the global GDP forecast for this year by 0.8 percentage points but trimmed the 2021 growth outlook to 5.2%.

Around $3 trillion in stimulus spending kept the United States from a disastrous contraction and growth is expected to decline just 4.3% this year.

Meanwhile, China’s economy is expected to grow by 1.9% this year, almost twice as much as previously forecast. The superpower and world’s number-two economy is the only major nation likely to expand in the face of the coronavirus.

Even amid the improved news, countries like India, Spain and Italy will see double-digit declines, while Britain just misses that threshold with a 9.8% contraction, the IMF said.

India’s economy will contract by a huge 10.3% this year. Even before the pandemic, Asia’s third-largest economy was struggling to gain traction, and the hit to global activity from the virus and one of the world’s strictest lockdowns combined to deal the country a severe blow.

On the other hand, the eurozone economy would contract by a staggering 8.3% this year, a free fall not seen since the 1930s Great Depression.

However, this was an improvement on the 10.2% drop predicted in June and before the European economy stirred back into action over the summer months.

As for the recession-wracked British economy, IMF said it will shrink by almost ten percent this year.

A contraction in the gross domestic product of 9.8% would, however, be an improvement on the previous IMF forecast of 10.2%, the Fund added.

But the UK economy is predicted to grow by 5.9% in 2021, down from prior guidance of 6.3%, according to the Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook.

“We are projecting a somewhat less severe though still deep recession in 2020, relative to our June forecast,” IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in the report released ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

The result “would have been much weaker if it weren’t for sizable, swift and unprecedented” response from governments and central banks, she said, again warning of the dangers of removing support too quickly.