October 20, 2015/IMF

he world is still recovering from the most recent global recession associated with the 2008–09 financial crisis and the possibility of another downturn persists as the global economy struggles to regain lost ground.

But what is a global recession? What is a global recovery? What really happens during these episodes? As the debates about the recent global recession and subsequent recovery have clearly shown, our understanding of these questions has been very limited. Ayhan Kose (Director of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group) and Marco Terrones (Deputy Division Chief of the IMF’s Research Department) have written a comprehensive study that puts the 2009 global recession and ongoing recovery in perspective by tracking and analyzing fluctuations in global and national growth over different phases of the business cycle.

It also analyzes previous global recessions in 1975, 1982, and 1991. The 270-page book is supplemented with new multimedia features, including historical videos and explanatory interviews with the authors and other experts, making this a compelling multimedia package that will be released on tablets as well as in print. (See video trailer)