MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has listed economic issues and a rise in poverty among the main challenges of 2020, he said in an interview with the RTVI channel.

When asked about the main challenges of the year besides the coronavirus, the Kremlin spokesman said: "The economy and everything related to it, poverty that is on the rise across the world."

"We are not even talking about the effect this will have on the poorest countries, there is hunger there," Peskov said. "Then, of course, we all think: "Is this the last pandemic? Is this the last coronavirus?" These are the challenges we face."

According to the prognosis of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the global GDP will drop by 4.2% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, Russia’s GDP is likely to drop by 3.8% in 2020, and in 2021, a 3.3% growth is expected. Earlier, head of the ministry Maxim Reshetnikov stated that Russia might reach the pre-crisis level by the third quarter of next year.