Its bleak outlook for the region comes as it warns the global economy will face the "worst recession since the Great Depression".
Asia's service sector in particular will struggle to rebound, it said.
Airlines, factories, shops and restaurants have been "hard hit" by national lockdowns.
Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, warned that governments would need to take extraordinary actions as a result.
"This is not a time for business as usual. Asian countries need to use all policy instruments in their toolkits."
Policymakers must offer targeted support to households and firms hardest-hit by travel bans, social distancing policies and other containment measures, the IMF said.
The drop in growth will be "worse than the annual growth rates throughout the Global Financial Crisis (4.7%), or the Asian Financial Crisis (1.3%)," the IMF said.
The Washington-based lender expects a 7.6% expansion in Asian economic growth next year if containment policies succeed, but added the outlook was "highly uncertain."
Virus could come back
China, which reports its own economic growth figures for the first three months of 2020 on Friday, is expected to grow by 1.2% this year. This is a significant fall from the 6% growth estimate the IMF forecast in January.
"We expect a rebound in economic activity later this year. This is because China is emerging from the outbreak first. Nonetheless, there are clear risks: the virus could come back and normalization could take longer," the IMF warned.
The world's second-largest economy is expected to see a rebound in activity later this year, with growth bouncing back to 9.2% next year, the IMF predicts.
