Coronavirus:

The world economy

at risk
4 charts show the coronavirus impact on the
global economy and markets so far
• The ongoing spread of the new coronavirus has become one of the
biggest threats to the global economy and financial markets.
• The virus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December,
has infected more than 110,000 people in at least 110 countries and
territories globally, according to the World Health Organization. Of
those infected, more than 4,000 people have died, according to WHO
data.
• China is where majority of the confirmed cases are — more than
80,000 infections have been reported in the mainland so far. To
contain the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese authorities locked down
cities, restricted movements of millions and suspended business
operations — moves that will slow down the world’s second-largest
economy and drag down the global economy along the way.
• To make things worse, the disease is spreading rapidly around the
world, with countries like Italy, Iran and South Korea reporting more
than 7,000 cases each. Other European countries like France, 
China’s gross domestic product growth saw the largest downgrade
in terms of magnitude, according to the report. The Asian economic
giant is expected to grow by 4.9% this year, slower than the earlier
forecast of 5.7%, said OECD.
Meanwhile, the global economy is expected to grow by 2.4% in
2020 — down from the 2.9% projected earlier, said the report.
Such a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing has hurt countries with close
economic links to Pacific economies China, many of which are Asia such
as Vietnam, Singapore and South Korea.  
Factories in China are taking longer than expected to resume operations,
several analysts said. That, along with a rapid spread of COVID-19
outside China, means that global manufacturing activity could remain
subdued for longer, economists said.
China is not the only country where the services sector has weakened. The services sector in the U.S., the
world’s largest consumer market, also contracted in February, according to IHS Markit, which compiles the
monthly PMI data.
One reason behind the U.S. services contraction was a reduction in “new business from abroad as customers
held back from placing orders amid global economic uncertainty and the coronavirus outbreak,” said IHS Markit.
China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, is the world’s largest crude
oil importer.
“The spread of the virus in Italy and other parts of Europe is particularly
worrying and will likely dampen demand in OECD countries as well,” the DBS
analysts wrote in a report.

Stock market rout

Fear surrounding the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy has hurt
investor sentiment and brought down stock prices in major markets.