Coronavirus will only have a marginal impact on economy

In an interview with Senior Journalist Krishnanand Tripathi, Krishnamurthy Subramanian talked about the economic impact of Coronavirus in various parts of the globe.

New Delhi: A new kind of influenza may have caused mayhem in India’s northern neighbour China but it will only have a limited impact on India’s economy. The new strain of H1N1 virus, popularly referred to as Novel Corona Virus has caused the death of more than 200 people in China and according to reports, more than 9,000 confirmed cases have been reported in China.

India has also quarantined several people who recently returned from China on suspicion of Coronavirus infection. Although, China is India’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade of nearly $90 billion but the outbreak of the disease in the country is unlikely to affect the Indian economy.

“If you go by the past experience of SARS then the impact will be marginal,” said chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian in response to a question.

China and South-East Asia have suffered several rounds of outbreaks of Coronavirus. It started with bird flu cases reported in 1997 and then came a different strand of the virus that caused SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002-03. The country was also hit by Swine Flu outbreak in 2018 that hit its pork industry severely.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already declared Coronavirus outbreak as a global epidemic as it has killed more than 200 people in China alone and there are over 7,700 confirmed cases of virus infection.

India has also started evacuating people from China to spread the disease to the country and Indian Army and ITBP have set up isolation facilities near national capital Delhi for the people returning from China.

A Kerala student who recently returned from China was tested positive for Coronavirus infection and has been isolated in a hospital in Thrissur.

Indian authorities have established contact with the people who have visited China in the recent past and are ready to evacuate Indians from the country. However, the outbreak of disease is unlikely to impact the Indian economy much.

India mostly exports raw materials and minerals to China and imports electronic items, machinery, chemicals and plastic items.

Unlike other countries, India’s bilateral trade of farm and poultry products with China is extremely limited that could have given greater exposure to Coronavirus strand that is similar to the virus that caused bird flu and swine flu epidemic in the country.