The International Monetary Fund has made available the sum of $50b to low-income and emerging-market countries that could potentially seek support in the fight against the Coronavirus epidemic, managing director Kristalina Georgieva announced Wednesday.
The amount is being provided through the Fund’s rapid-disbursing emergency financing facilities, and $10b out of it will be at zero interest for the poorest of the 189 members through the Rapid Credit Facility, Georgieva explained.
Georgieva described the situation with the spread of the Coronavirus as “serious and could well get worse”.
He said the virus has affected over one-third of the Fund’s membership, which makes it a global issue “calling for a global response”.
Painting the picture of how the epidemic would affect the global economy, Georgieva declared that the shock arising from it will be “somewhat unusual as it affects significant elements of both supply and demand”.
Available figures show that the death toll from the virus as at 11:49 GMT on Thursday, March 5, was 3, 304, with 96, 268 confirmed cases in 86 countries and territories. Nigeria has one confirmed case, an Italian citizen that came into the country on a brief business trip.
Governments and health authorities across the globe are placing people suspected of having the virus on quarantine. People are also being advised to postpone trips that are considered not very important now, as part of efforts to contain the spread of the disease.
Georgieva warned that global supply would be disrupted by the combined effects of morbidity and mortality. Additionally, supply will be reduced by the containment efforts that restrict mobility and higher costs of doing business due to restricted supply chains and a tightening of credit, he said.
Demand, on its part, will fall because of “higher uncertainty, increased precautionary behaviour, containment efforts, and rising financial costs that reduce the ability to spend,” he warned, noting that these impacts would cross borders.
