The Economist Intelligence Unit has revised downwards its global growth forecast for 2020 to 2.2%, from 2.3% previously, citing new risks that have emerged following the novel coronavirus outbreak in China.
The virus originated in Wuhan, a city of around 11.3 million people in central Hubei province, China, and has spread to most provinces in mainland China and overseas.
“The Chinese authorities are taking unprecedented quarantine measures to halt the spread of the pathogen, which is likely to have consequences on the global economy,” The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a report.
Global growth was sluggish throughout 2019 amid trade tensions, a sharp deceleration in real GDP growth in the US, China and India and political uncertainty in a number of EU countries.
In addition, since the start of 2020, concerns related to coronavirus have increased threats to global growth, it said.
Noting that the virus is a “threat” for global growth, the EIU has revised China’s growth downwards.
“On the assumption that the spread of the virus will be under control by end-March, we are lowering our real GDP forecast for China in 2020 to 5.4%, from 5.9%.”