|
 France echoed Giuseppe Conte's call for action, saying Europe must
come up with a "strong, massive and coordinated response" and euro
zone finance ministers, meeting next week, must decide on a stimulus
plan to avoid economic crisis.
Stocks have fallen worldwide as the virus has spread, cutting global
supply lines and crippling industry.
They plummeted again on Monday as prices for crude oil tumbled as
much as 33% after Saudi Arabia launched a price war with Russia,
sending investors already worried by the coronavirus fleeing for the
safety of bonds and the Japanese yen.
U.S. stock futures fell 5% to hit their daily lower limit and halt
trading. London's FTSE 100 shed 8.4 per cent a few minutes after the
open in its worst single-day drop since the financial crisis.
In little more than two weeks, the number of recorded coronavirus
cases in Italy has surged to 7,375, with 366 deaths, the
second-highest death toll after China, putting the health system
under huge strain.
"We will not stop here," Conte told the daily La Repubblica. "We
will use a massive shock therapy. To come out of this emergency we
will use all human and economic resources."
He said strict European Union borrowing limits should be loosened to
allow more fiscal room for maneuver, and that the flexibility
envisaged by the EU's budget rules should be used "in full".
"Europe cannot think of confronting an extraordinary situation with
ordinary measures," he said.
The virus emerged in China in December but has since spread around
the world. Flights have been canceled, communities from cities to
cruise liners have been isolated, and concerts, trade fairs and
sporting events postponed. Even the Tokyo Summer Olympics are in
doubt.
More than 110,000 people have been infected in 105 countries and
territories and 3,800 have died, the vast majority in mainland
China, according to a Reuters tally.
EMPTY STADIUMS
With Italy's economy already on the brink of recession, its new
curbs, unprecedented in Italy's post-war history, halt movement in
and out of Lombardy, which is the richest and most economically
productive region and includes Milan, and close many public spaces.
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Bars and restaurants were ordered to close or to restrict entry and maintain a
distance of at least a meter between people on their premises. Major sporting
events, including top-flight Serie A football, will be played without spectators
for a month.
France had 1,126 confirmed coronavirus cases and 19 deaths as of Sunday evening.
The central bank estimated the economy would barely grow in the first quarter
from the previous three months and warned of a potentially severe slowdown.
But China and South Korea, Asia's second-worst hit country, have both reported a
slowdown in new infections.
Mainland China, outside the epicenter of Hubei province, reported no new locally
transmitted coronavirus cases for the second day on Monday, but a top Communist
Party official warned against reducing vigilance.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday reported 165 new
coronavirus cases in South Korea, bringing the national tally to 7,478, while
the death toll rose by one to 51.
The rate of increase in new infections fell to its lowest level in 11 days,
prompting President Moon Jae-in to say South Korea can enter the "phase of
stability" soon if it continues to reduce the number of new cases.
Iran, with 7,161 cases and 237 deaths, the third highest toll after China and
Italy, released about 70,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus, judiciary
chief Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday, according to Mizan, the news site of the
judiciary.
"The release of the prisoners, to the point where it doesn't create insecurity
in society ... will continue," he said.
(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris; Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee in
Seoul; Babak Dehghanpisheh in Dubai; Writing by Nick Macfie, Editing by Timothy
Heritage)
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