Steve Agbota
Threat of coronavirus and heightening geo-political and trade tensions are expected to drive the world to the brink of a global recession this year.
To forestal the developmentinvestors were enjoined to take action sooner rather than later to build and safeguard their wealth.
In a statement to newsmen yesterday, Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial services and advisory organisations, lamented that Asian-Pacific, European stocks and U.S. futures were on free fall on Wednesday as global market sell-off triggered by concerns over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak grew.
He warned that the impending recession would be severe because Central Banks around the world are running out of weapons to see off the threats.
Mr Green said: “Investors have largely been caught off-guard by the serious and far-reaching economic consequence of the coronavirus.
“This, despite major multinational organisations already lowering their profit guidances, and many more likely to do so in coming weeks. Clearly, this will hit global supply chains, economies across the world and ultimately government coffers too.
“However, it does seem that this week the world is waking up to the reality of the situation as the containment of coronavirus hasn’t yet materialised and confirmed cases soar in different countries. Until such time as governments pump liquidity into the markets and coronavirus cases peak, markets will be jittery triggering sell-offs,” he added.
In another development, experts in the Nigerian maritime sector said Nigeria would be losing about N1 billion daily to the outbreak of the Coronavirus as the level of imports arriving Nigerian ports is gradually dropping while port calls to China are becoming less frequent.
This was as a result of fear of contacting the disease and a slowdown in the Chinese economy have deterred cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and bulk carriers alike from stopping at the nation’s harbours.
Commercial vessels have stopped arriving, with port calls falling by an estimated 30 per cent in February, and container throughput estimated to decline by between 20 and 30 per cent, according to Clarksons, a shipping research company.However, with more than 50 per cent of Nigeria Import coming from China, many of nation’s importers are now afraid to take cargoes from China, even as millions who usually travel during this period are canceling their trips.Conversely, stakeholders described the Coronavirus as a very big blow to Nigeria economy, because most of Nigeria imports are from China, Hongkong and presently people are scared to take any consignment from China. Also earlier this week, Nigel Green noted in addition, coronavirus has struck at a time when major economies, including Japan, Germany, India and Hong Kong are already facing a serious downturn.