Virus Fears Wipe out $6 Trillion from Global Markets
Kevin Rudd on CNN Quest Means Business
Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd joined CNN's Quest Means Business to discuss the economic and political impacts of COVID-19.
Rudd advises that there are multiple categories of risk in this coronavirus outbreak. Rudd explains,"one is, what do we know about the virus, its transmission rate in China and beyond? The second is, what is the objective impact on the number two economy in the entire world? And number three, the ‘economic contagion’ through global supply chains, plus any indigenous problems which arise from a large outbreak within economies like Italy or economies like the United States if things were to go wrong here.”
On the economy, Rudd comments that the past week has been a market over-reaction and that investors and firms need to reassess the market risk using the available data points. Rudd also states that the data points are much more varied than they seem at a glance. On government response, Rudd urges countries to seek a multilateral solution, recommending that the G20 countries meet to form a comprehensive plan of action to share information and show solidarity in their efforts to combat the health crisis. A multilateral solution, Rudd states, like the one reached at the “March G20 summit of 2009, is what finally stabilized markets given the mayhem of the previous 6 months or so.”