(VOVworld) - The International Monetary Fund has said that the global economy is "highly vulnerable" and urged the United States and other large nations to prepare contingency plans that could be rolled out quickly. The report was prepared for senior officials of the G20, the world's 20 largest economies, before a meeting in Shanghai later this week amid falling stock markets, volatile currencies and signs of economic weakness. The IMF report said a fragile global recovery has weakened further in the face of falling oil prices and diminished growth prospects in China and other emerging market countries. The organization said that countries at the centre of the current Syrian refugee crisis and epidemics such as the Zika virus "are shouldering a burden for others and could be backed up by a coordinated global initiative". The IMF last month trimmed its economic forecast for global growth by 0.2 percentage point for both 2016 and 2017, reducing its projection to 3.4 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year.