EIU sees 2020 global economic growth at 2.9%
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 07:00:04 +0000
THE Economist Group’s research arm believes that global economic growth will stay at decades low this year.
In a report, The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU) estimates global economic growth at 2.9 percent, matching the expansion rate recorded in 2019.
“We expect economic growth in the developed world to slow in 2020, driven by a moderation in US growth,” it said.
In Asia alone, the EIU expects that the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in China will dampen the region’s growth perspectives.
It said the global economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak was set to be more profound than that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) — a similar virus that spread from China in 2003, owing to the much larger role that the communist state plays in the global economy today.
“Taking into account the direct impact of weaker demand in China, as well as potential economic disruption in other countries should the coronavirus outbreak spread further globally, our forecast for global real GDP (gross domestic product) growth could dip below 2.5 percent this year,” the EIU added.
First emerging in the city of Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province in December, Covid-19 has spread to more than two dozen countries. It has killed more than 2,900 people — including one, a Chinese tourist, in the Philippines earlier this month — and infected over 81,000 others as of Wednesday.
The Philippine government projected that the outbreak’s impact could shave as much as 0.7 percent of the country’s GDP if it lasts the entire year. MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO