IMF monitoring economic hit from virus in 'real time'

The International Monetary Fund is monitoring developments on the coronavirus outbreak in "real time," a spokesman said Thursday, adding that the economic hit depends on the duration of the epidemic. "We at the IMF are monitoring this very closely, we're looking at the economic indicators on a real-time basis," said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.

"If global supply chains were systematically affected or global financial markets were significantly impacted by increasing uncertainty, then obviously the impact would be greater," Rice said, adding that the effects would be more severe if the ailment spreads to other parts of Asia from China.

"We're not at this point in a position to put any hard numbers around this," Rice said. "That's something that we would do in due course, but it's just too early to do that."

The SARS-like virus has afflicted more than 7,700 people and led to 170 fatalities. Outside China there have been around 100 infections reported.

The IMF on January 20 projected the global economy would grow by 3.3 percent in 2020, above the 2.9 percent level last year, due in part to an easing in US-China trade tensions.

But the IMF warned that better growth depended on avoiding another flare-up in US-China tensions.