The World Trade Organization estimates that the global economic downturn caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus will be worse than the recession of 2008.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo announced the organization’s calculations on a video posted on the WTO’s website on Wednesday, according to Reuters. He said that the group’s economic team predicts “a very sharp decline in trade” globally due to the pandemic and emergency regulations that have shut down many sectors.
“This pandemic will inevitably have an enormous impact on the economy,” Azevedo said. “Recent projections predict an economic downturn and job losses that are worse than the global financial crisis a dozen years ago.”
The economic impact of the coronavirus is continuing to grow as governments rely on heavy restrictions to stop the spread of the disease. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte locked down his country in early March after patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, flooded hospitals in the northern area of Lombardy.
States across the United States have enacted various levels of emergency regulations as hundreds of thousands of workers have either been laid off or furloughed as companies cut costs to survive the pandemic. Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain, began furloughing tens of thousands of workers last week.
