London:
The Bank of England unexpectedly cut interest rates by half a percent on Wednesday in a shock move to bolster Britain's economy against disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted to cut Bank Rate for the first time since August 2016, to 0.25% from 0.75%, the central bank said in a statement.
"Although the magnitude of the economic shock from Covid-19 is highly uncertain, activity is likely to weaken materially in the United Kingdom over the coming months," the BoE said.
Britain also announced a $39-billion war chest to soften the economic impact of the coronavirus after the Bank of England cut interest rates on Wednesday and Italy, the worst-affected country outside China, said it might further tighten already draconian curbs.
Britain also launched a 30-billion pound ($39-billion) economic stimulus plan as new finance minister Rishi Sunak said the economy faced a “significant impact” from the spread of the virus, even if it was likely to be temporary.
“Up to a fifth of the working-age population could need to be off work at any one time. And business supply chains are being disrupted around the globe,” Sunak said in an annual budget speech to parliament.
He announced a package of measures to help companies facing a cash-flow crunch, including a year-long suspension of a property tax paid by smaller firms. The health system and other public services would receive an extra 5 billion pounds to help counter the spread of the coronavirus.
The BoE maintained its target for government bond purchases to 435 billion pounds and its corporate bond purchase target to 10 billion pounds.The BoE also introduced a new term funding scheme for small businesses. It will offer four-year funding over the next 12 months.
The central bank's Financial Policy Committee also lowered the counter-cyclical capital buffer for banks to zero from 1%.
The United States, where the S&P 500 stock index was down almost 4%, said it was considering a range of steps, including tax relief, to combat the virus that could put hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
“Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci told Congress.
The coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has spread around the world, halting industry, bringing flights to a standstill, closing schools and forcing the postponement of sporting events and concerts. Even the Tokyo Summer Olympics are in question.
The West has watched in shock as infections have ballooned in Italy, Iran, France and Spain after more moderate growth elsewhere.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said up to 70% of the population was likely to be infected as the virus spreads around the world in the absence of a cure.
“When the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 to 70% of the population will be infected,” she told a news conference in Berlin.
MORE RESTRICTIONS POSSIBLE IN ITALY
Last week, the Italian cabinet said it would need just 7.5 billion euros to fight the virus, but since then the emergency has escalated and the nation, already close to recession, is under lockdown.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday earmarked $28.3 billion to ease the economic impact. He said that already tough restrictions on movement might be tightened more after the northern region of Lombardy, centred on Italy’s financial capital Milan, asked for all shops to shut and public transport to close.
As of Tuesday’s close, $8.1 trillion in value has been erased from global stock markets in the recent rout.
More than 119,100 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 4,298 have died, the vast majority in China, according to a Reuters tally. Italy has had 10,149 cases and 631 deaths. Iran has had 9,000 cases and 354 deaths. The United States has 975 cases and 30 deaths.
The number of confirmed cases in the United Kingdom has risen to 456, up from 373 a day earlier, the health ministry said on Wednesday. The death toll was six.
Kuwait, which has 69 cases and has reported no deaths, closed its airport to all international flights, the state news agency said.
But not all the news was bad.
As cases exploded in the West, some key industries in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicentre of the epidemic and a centre of car manufacturing, were told they could resume work on Wednesday, a day after President Xi Jinping visited the city for the first time since the outbreak began.
Health authorities elsewhere in the country were lowering emergency response levels and relaxing travel restrictions.