The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which first emerged in Wuhan, China, has now spread to more than 169 countries with 392,331 confirmed cases. As China has taken measures to contain the numbers, there have been significant increases in cases across Europe, the United States and Asia. The pandemic is adversely affecting different business sectors and has become one of the biggest threats to the global economy. With more domestic travel restrictions and social distancing measures implemented to flatten the infection curve, governments are coming to realise that an economic slowdown is inevitable.
The global slowdown is becoming apparent in the financial markets, with key market indexes across the various geographies showing a sharp decline. With Chinese production having halted for almost a quarter, there has been severe disruption in the global supply chain. The heavily indebted corporate sector is also a key concern, as questions about its overall health have been raised. While China has shown signs of recovery, the worst is yet to come for most other countries. With all these factors in play, is the financial services industry ready to deal with this fast-evolving situation?
In this RadioFinance session, we will discuss and assess the current global economic outlook and evaluate the readiness of the financial services industry to deal with the fallout of COVID-19.
The discussion will focus on these issues:
