G-20 finance chiefs gather to study economic impact of Covid-19

>>RIYADH: The finance chiefs of the Group of 20 major economies were to kick off their two-day meeting late yesterday in Riyadh to assess the economic fallout from the new coronavirus outbreak in China and discuss ways to tax digital giants.

The gathering will be the first ministerial meeting after Saudi Arabia took over the G-20 presidency from Japan late last year.

As the first Arab nation to take the helm of the forum, the kingdom will be back in the spotlight after facing harsh criticism over the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The meeting will take place as the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has brought the world’s second-largest economy nearly to a standstill, looms over the global economy in what the International Monetary Fund has called the “most pressing uncertainty” in the current outlook.

The coronavirus issue is “certain to become a major point of discussion”, from the viewpoint it is considered a risk to the global economy, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters ahead of the meeting.

An IMF report prepared for the G-20 meeting warned that the halt in production and limited mobility of people in China could spill over to the global economy, affecting tourism and supply chains.

A quick containment of the disease could bring a “bounce-back later in the year”, but “a wider and more protracted outbreak or lingering uncertainty about contagion could intensify supply chain disruptions and depress confidence more persistently, making the global impact more severe,” the report said.