Italy PM Conte: Coronavirus economic impact could be ‘very strong’

Rome: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy could be “very strong”.

“The economic impact could be very strong. At this moment we can calculate that there will be a negative economic impact, we are not yet in a position to forecast what will happen,” he told reporters.

Italy is struggling to contain the Europe’s largest coronavirus outbreak, whose epicentre is in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, the industrial and financial heartlands of the country.

On Monday, cases climbed above 220 with seven deaths reported.