COVID-19 and Economy

Mrinal Gupta: MD, DNB Dermatology Consultant Dermatologist, Treatwell Skin Centre,

Jammu, India

drmrinalgupta@yahoo.com

Ayman Abdelmaksoud: MD, Mansoura Dermatology, Venerology and Leprology Hospital,

Mansoura, Egypt

behcet.behcet@yahoo.com

Mohammad Jafferany: MD,

College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Saginaw, MI, USA

mjafferany@yahoo.com

Torello Lotti: Professor of Dermatology, University of Studies Guglielmo Marconi, Rome, Italy

Professor@torellolotti.it

Roxanna Sadoughifar: MD, University of Rome G. Marconi, Rome, Italy; Bidarskincenter

Tehran, Iran

Mohamad Goldust: MD, University of Rome G. Marconi, Rome, Italy; Department of

Dermatology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany; Department of Dermatology,

University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been
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differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:
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mgoldust@uni-mainz.de

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Conflict of interest: None

Running title: COVID-19 & Economy

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the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met and that each

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Corresponding author:

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Mohamad Goldust: MD, University of Rome G. Marconi, Rome, Italy; Department of

Dermatology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany; Department of Dermatology,

University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

mohamad.goldust@usb.ch

Fax: +49 6131-17-6629

Cell: +49 1786-97-4258

Dear editor,

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which originated from Wuhan, China has spread to more than 125

countries of the world infecting more than 100,000 population (Sohrabi et al., 2020). Apart from

being a global health concern, COVID-19 is having major consequences on the world economy

and experts have predicted that COVID-19 will lower global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

growth by one-half a percentage point for 2020 (from 2.9 to 2.4 percent). The whole world is now

a single global community, where any major happening in one part is bound to have repercussions

in rest of the world (Bobdey & Ray, 2020).

Chinese government, in order to control the spread of the disease , had to close the major

production centers and as China being a manufacturing hub, led to disruption in the global supply

chain which affected almost all sectors ranging from pharmaceuticals to automobile. The

disruption of pharmaceutical industry in China had impact on other countries, where the prices of

lifesaving drugs increased due to shortage of raw materials from China. As the Chinese industries

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had ceased production, the global prices of raw materials like metals fell all over leading to major

slowdown in various metal producing economies (Maffioli, 2020).

Emulating China, other affected countries also restricted public gatherings and had to shut down

schools, large gatherings, sports and community activities. Most of the countries had their primary

infection contracted from people coming from endemic areas and many countries have stopped

flight operations and closed borders. People also started avoiding unnecessary travel, leading to

large number of flight cancellations causing major losses for the airline companies. There was

overall reduction in oil demand, which led to the largest fall in oil prices in the global market since

the Gulf war. The rapid fall in oil prices along with the overall reduction in global industrial

production caused major fall in the global stock markets with markets falling more than 20% over

a short span of time and the risk of a global 2008-like recession is looming large (Bobdey & Ray,

2020; McKibbin, Fernando, 2020).

The longer the virus spreads, the more economic performance will be impacted, raising concerns

about the financial sustainability, especially for highly indebted countries. Researchers do not yet

have a clear understanding of the virus’s behavior, transmission rate, and extent of spread.

Coherent and coordinated responses are needed the global policymakers to limit the economic

fallout.

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References

1. Bobdey S, Ray S. Going viral–Covid-19 impact assessment: A perspective beyond clinical

practice. Journal of Marine Medical Society. 2020;22(1):9.

2. Maffioli EM. How Is the World Responding to the 2019 Coronavirus Disease Compared

with the 2014 West African Ebola Epidemic? The Importance of China as a Player in the

Global Economy. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020 Mar 11. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0135.

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3. McKibbin WJ, Fernando R. The global macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19: Seven

scenarios. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200302_COVID19.

4. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health

Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019

novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg. 2020 Feb 26;76:71-76.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.