This morning on 2/10/2020 at a breakfast meeting at an Economic Club in Calgary AB, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau stated the coronavirus will have a “significant impact” as the outbreak and widespread quarantine efforts are having ripple effects around the world.
Lockdowns in Wuhan and other hubs in the Hubei province due to the coronavirus outbreak have led to reduced demand for many industrial inputs. One of the results is a drop in oil prices by 15 per cent during the crisis, Morneau said.
More than 40,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported around the world, along with more than 900 related deaths, most of them in China. Seven cases have been reported in Canada: four in British Columbia and three in Ontario.