RIGA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus across the world will cause Latvia's economic growth to slow down this year, experts warned on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases in the Baltic country rose to eight.
Inna Steinbuka, head of the Latvian Fiscal Discipline Council, said in an interview with TV3 channel that being a part of the wider world, Latvia will inevitably feel both a direct and indirect impact from the looming pandemic.
While in February this year the Fiscal Discipline Council projected Latvia's dross domestic product (GDP) to grow 2.2 percent in 2020, "now we believe that the annual growth could be 1.5 percent at best," Steinbuka said, noting that steeply falling oil and stock prices in the world can also start affecting the Latvian economy.
The spread of the coronavirus is expected to bring losses to hotels, providers of passenger services and airlines, including Latvia's national carrier airBaltic, Steinbuka said.
Peteris Strautins, an economist at Luminor Bank, said on public radio that the coronavirus outbreak has made short-term economic growth prospects very unclear.
With the situation with COVID-19 worsening in the world, Latvian tour operators are seeing a massive decline in turnover. If the situation does not improve, their turnover in April is expected to shrink 90 percent from the same period last year.
"In the COVID-19 context, the future has become very uncertain. It will depend on how well Latvia manages to protect itself against the contagion. If the infection starts spreading, potential measures might be extremely harsh," Strautins said.
As for the lending market, the Luminor economist said that banks are ready to provide loans to people and that Luminor is planning to double mortgage lending. However, this will depend on demand, he said.
