Argentina-Economy shrinks.

ARGENTINA-ECONOMY SHRINKS.

In its highly-anticipated World Economic Outlook, the IMF unveiled a grim outlook for the global economy, which would shrink 1.3 percent in 2009.

The IMF warned that the global recession will hit deeper and last longer than previously thought.

"The financial crisis spread quickly to Latin America. It did not take long to affect the real economy," it said.

However, it added, "public and private balance sheets were relatively strong. Thus, the decline in growth is generally projected to be less extreme than in other developing economies."