Bloodbath in the markets. The Sensex has plunged to a 15-month low of over 2200 points to settle at 35124, while the Nifty is down 600 points to settle at 10,350.
Moody’s Investors Service has revised its global macro outlook and its baseline growth forecasts for all G20 economies as the coronavirus outbreak has spread rapidly outside China to a number of major economies.
“It now seems certain that even if the virus is steadily contained, the outbreak will dampen global economic activity well into Q2 of this year,” it said.
Moody’s revised the baseline growth forecasts for G20 economies to 2.1 per cent, 0.3 percentage point lower than the previous baseline. China’s 2020 growth forecast has also been reduced to 4.8 per cent from the previous estimate of 5.2 per cent.
For the United States, growth of 1.5 per cent is now expected, down from the previous estimate of 1.7 per cent. Furthermore, weak demand will translate into generally subdued commodity prices and oil prices will remain volatile.
“Several plausible developments could lead to a far more negative scenario than our baseline forecast,” said Moody’s Vice President Madhavi Bokil.”
A sustained pullback in consumption coupled with extended closures of businesses will hurt earnings, drive layoffs and weigh on sentiment. Such conditions could ultimately feed self-sustaining recessionary dynamics,” she said.
Image: Moody’s Investors Service has revised its global macro outlook and its baseline growth forecasts for all G20 economies as the coronavirus outbreak has spread rapidly outside China to a number of major economies
