Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday said it has lowered its outlook for the global base metals industry to negative on slowing global growth due to the spread of coronavirus. “This outlook reflects our expectations for the fundamental business conditions in the industry over the next 12 to 18 months,” it said in a media statement.
Moody's global macro outlook 2020-21 (March 2020 update) indicates simultaneous supply and demand shocks are likely to materially hurt the global economy, particularly through June 2020. The revised forecast puts US GDP growth in 2020 at 1.5 per cent, the European area at 0.7 per cent, China at 4.8 per cent, and at 2.1 per cent for the G-20 countries overall.
The investors service in the statement has cautioned that there is a higher than usual degree of uncertainty around its forecasts. The longer the outbreak affects economic activity, the higher the risk that demand, supply and financial shocks from the outbreak will reinforce each other and lead to recessionary dynamics in many affected countries.