The ruinous coronavirus currently ravaging nations is threatening to grind the world economy to a halt; as major economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom and other European economic powers are being placed on either partial or complete lockdown.
On Monday, President of the United States, Donald Trump sounded the alarm that the US may be heading into a recession, as stocks received a thumping.
As the number of coronavirus cases is expected to increase in the United States, President Donald Trump yesterday moved to moderate the impact of the pandemic on the economy, fundamentally altered by a push for a nation to stay home.
As the global markets fluctuated amid fears of a recession yesterday, the president engaged with tourism executives as well as restaurant leaders, retailers and suppliers. His administration is expected to propose roughly $1 trillion emergency economic stimulus to address the free-fall while considering checks to American workers trying to make their way in an economy deeply unsettled by the outbreak.
U.S. businesses large and small are reeling from shutdowns, cancellations and public fear about the virus as the number of cases rises nationwide. Stocks moved higher on Wall Street on Tuesday, a day after plunging to their worst loss in more than three decades.
The president iterated plea with Americans to follow sweeping guidelines that for the next 14 days will temporarily rewrite the norms of society, including for older residents to stay home while all people should avoid gatherings of more than 10 and their local restaurants and bars.
“By making shared sacrifices, we can protect the health of our people and our economy and I think our economy will come back very rapidly,” Trump said. “If we do this right our country and the world frankly, but our country can be rolling again … very quickly. We can protect the health of our people and we can protect our economy.”
Trump, maintaining his newly somber tone about the crisis enveloping the globe, urged Americans to work from home and urged the nation’s cities and states to issue restrictions to promote distancing in line with new federal guidelines. He promised a dramatic increase in access to coronavirus tests, ventilators, hospital beds and access to telehealth services. His administration said it would coordinate responses with the states, would push for construction workers to give masks to health care workers and, if needed, use the Army Corps of Engineers to build more hospital space.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the administration’s lead negotiator with Congress, said tax filings could be delayed and vowed that the stock markets would remain open but their hours could be shortened. The president vowed to maintain the safety of elections while voters in three states went to the polls Tuesday even as Ohio postponed its primary. Officials said assistance could be offered to the airlines, hotels cruise ships and airplane manufacturers.
In the United Kingdom, the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Robert Chote said Britain was facing something akin to a wartime situation for its public finances and a temporary spike in borrowing would be sensible.
On Monday, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said people should work from home where possible, and stay away from pubs and restaurants. People at-risk groups will be asked within days to stay home for 12 weeks.
The number of people who have died with the virus in the UK has reached 55. More than 1,500 people have tested positive for the virus in the UK – but the actual number of cases is estimated to be between 35,000 and 50,000.
The UK’s shift in strategy comes as Europe plans to ban all non-essential travel throughout the Schengen free-travel zone, as more countries close their borders.
As Italy confronts the ravages of an unexpected threat in the coronavirus, fears are intensifying that the economic damage could trigger a far more familiar danger — a banking crisis.
Italy’s banks and their formidable piles of bad loans have long constituted a central worry in an economy that has not grown in more than a decade. The nation’s lenders are at once big enough, sufficiently integrated with the world, and adequately shaky to pose a constant menace to the global financial system.
European leaders habitually fret that Italy’s banks are but one misfortune away from a calamity that could force them to mount a rescue, lest a shock felt in Milan swell into a continental emergency.
Now, an epic misfortune is playing out.
With Italy effectively quarantined, its industry shuttered, and consumer spending practically nil beyond food and medicine, the economy is expected to contract by 3 percent this year, according to a recent forecast from Oxford Economics
Italy’s health ministry said a total of 1,809 people have died as of 6 p.m. local time on March 15; the death toll jumped from the 1,441 fatalities reported a day earlier.
French luxury conglomerate LVMH said factories that produce perfume and makeup for brands like Christian Dior and Givenchy will be making hand sanitizer starting Monday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that it is urging organizers to cancel or postpone in-person events with 50 people or more in attendance throughout the United States.
China’s National Health Commission said another 14 people have died, all of them in Hubei province where the infection was first detected.
Oil prices, tourism and capital markets hit by the coronavirus can have an impact on Gulf economies, an analyst told CNBC this week.
The World Health Organization last Wednesday declared the virus a global pandemic after it spread to more than 110 countries and infected at least 121,000 people.
Iran, the worst-hit Middle Eastern nation, reportedly has around 9,000 confirmed cases and over 350 deaths, according to the Associated Press. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman also have multiple cases of infection.
