The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to lead to the slowest growth since 1967 in East Asia and the Pacific as well as china, the World Bank said.

Growth in China was expected to come in at 2% this year. The rest of the East Asia and Pacific region was projected to see a 3.5% contraction, the World Bank said.

The bank said the region this year is projected to grow by only 0.9%, the lowest rate since 1967.

“These domestic difficulties were compounded by the pandemic-induced global recession, which hit East Asia and Pacific economies that rely on trade and tourism hard,” it said.