As Asian markets suffered their worst weekly crashes since 2008 financial crisis, governments and central banks prepared more emergency measures to tackle the economic impacts of the coronavirus.
Coronavirus has now infected over an estimate of 135,000 people and killed more than 4900 worldwide. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie, was one among the several thousand people who got newly diagnosed with the COVID-19 respiratory disease.
Experts warn that many more people may be affected by the outbreak that emerged in the Chinese city Wuhan late last year due to lack of testing and unreported cases
Large public gatherings have been banned or restricted, some of the major sporting events have
been cancelled or postponed and schools are also closed.
“There is a sense of fear and panic,” said James Tao, an analyst at stockbroker Commsec in Sydney, where phones at the high-value client desk rang non-stop.
“It’s one of those situations where there is so much uncertainty that no-one quite knows how to respond ... if it’s fight or flight, many people are choosing flight at the moment.” He said.
Wall Street stocks slumped about 10 per cent .DJI .SPX on Thursday and Japan’s Nikkei .N225 was dropped by about 10 per cent. This was their worst day since the 1987 “Black Monday” crash.
U. S. President Donald Trump imposed global restriction on travel from the continent due to which travellers in Europe rushed to board flights to the United States. This decision angered European Leaders and also frightened investors. Trump also suggested delay of the 202o Olympics in Tokyo by a year.
“Maybe they postpone it for a year ... if that’s possible,” Trump told reporters. “I like that better than I like having empty stadiums all over the place.”
Tokyo 2020 organizers were completely prepared to hold safe and secure games on schedule which were said to start in the month of July.
“Still, Japan must take “bold and unprecedented” steps to beat the economic impact of the virus,” its economy minister said, suggesting large-scale fiscal stimulus was in the works.
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