ECB's Lagarde warns of 2008-style shock in Europe due to coronavirus, calls for urgent action

Yohay Elam FXStreet

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, has warned that Europe risks a 2008-like economic crisis, calling for urgent action from policymakers according to Bloomberg.

Her stark words come after a teleconference between EU leaders on Tuesday which ended in announcing a €25 billion fund to mitigate the economic fallout. ahead of the ECB's rate decision on Thursday. Economists expect a 10 basis point cut to the bank's deposit rate.

Italy is the epicenter of Europe's coronavirus crisis with severe restrictions imposed on all the country. The death toll in the eurozone's third-largest economy has topped 600 with over 10,000 infections confirmed. The number of cases in Germany, Spain, and France has topped 1,000.

EUR/USD trades around 1.1330, advancing as the dollar weakens alongside falling US bond yields.

-- more to come

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

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