Australia Cuts Interest Rates as World’s Central Banks Weigh a Response to Coronavirus

https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-drives-interest-rates-lower-in-australia-11583213364?shareToken=stb9d7b6fba649420c9f498798e58ced4f

The corona virus has had a major impact on the global economy. Australia is going to cut its interest rates in order to not go into a recession as they have not had one in the last 28 years. The banks of Australia reduced interest by a quarter percentage to an all time record low of 0.50% after the coronavirus outbroke. The outbreak of the virus led to issues with exports, foreign education and tourism. The US and Chinese economy is much weaker than expected. The virus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,000. This disrupts global supply lines and jolts stock markets. During the past week the confirmed cases outside of China have quickly escalated. Many banks in central Asia have cut interest rates to support growth as we get over this outbreak. Oxford Economics says that the damage from the corona virus will be larger, broader and longer lasting than any other virus spreads in the past. Last year Australia had three rate cuts in order to help reverse a downturn in its housing market. It is difficult to tell how large and long lasting the economic effects will be.