IMF’s Georgieva: Too soon to tell economic impact of Wuhan coronavirus on China

While speaking at a forum on Thursday, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva noted the following comments.

It is still too soon to gauge the economic impact of the virus outbreak on China's economy, beyond the first three months of the year.

It would be irresponsible to offer any speculations around what may happen.

The immediate impact is obvious. We have travel, tourism, manufacturing in China, and a little bit beyond China in Asia being impacted.

For this quarter, very likely there would be some negative impact.

But beyond that "we just observe and assess.

The outbreak highlights the "unpredictability" that has become the norm in the world.

Preparedness, prevention, early action ... has to get into the bloodstream of policymakers, it is, whether it is pandemics or a climate shock or geopolitical tension.

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