The European Union sees “no need to panic” over a coronavirus outbreak in Italy that has already killed two people and infected more than 100 in the country, the bloc’s economic affairs commissioner said on Sunday (February 23).
Finance leaders of the world’s top 20 economies wrapped up their two-day meeting on Sunday (February 23) that was dominated by growing concern over the widening fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank heads faced a sober presentation by the International Monetary Fund, which predicted the epidemic would shave 0.1 percentage point off global growth.
As the delegates wrapped up their meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying that Beijing will step up policy adjustments to help cushion the blow on the economy from the outbreak. China was represented at the G20 meeting by its ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as senior officials stayed away due to the growing crisis over the virus.