Health and Healthcare Systems

G20 leaders will convene by video conference to discuss coronavirus

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz delivers a televised speech regarding the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia March 19, 2020. Picture taken March 19, 2020. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via Coronavirus china virus health healthcare who world health organization disease deaths pandemic epidemic worries concerns Health virus contagious contagion viruses diseases disease lab laboratory doctor health dr nurse medical medicine drugs vaccines vaccinations inoculations technology testing test medicinal biotechnology biotech biology chemistry physics microscope research influenza flu cold common cold bug risk symptomes respiratory china iran italy europe asia america south america north washing hands wash hands coughs sneezes spread spreading precaution precautions health warning covid 19 cov SARS 2019ncov wuhan sarscow wuhanpneumonia  pneumonia outbreak patients unhealthy fatality mortality elderly old elder age serious death deathly deadly

The virtual meeting will be hosted by Saudi Arabia's 84-year-old King Salman. Image: VIA REUTERS

Stephen Kalin
  • Leaders from the Group of 20 will discuss the coronavirus crisis via video conference, in a bid to develop a cohesive action plan.
  • The virtual conference will be hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.

Leaders from the Group of 20 major economies will convene a video conference on Thursday to discuss the coronavirus epidemic, the Saudi secretariat said, amid criticism that the group has been slow to respond to the global crisis.

G20 finance ministers and central bankers agreed during a separate video conference this week to develop an “action plan” to respond to the outbreak, which the International Monetary Fund expects will trigger a global recession. A subsequent statement offered few details.

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A separate statement said Saudi Arabia’s 84-year-old King Salman would chair the meeting “to advance a coordinated global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its human and economic implications.”

One source said the G20 sherpas, who are the leaders’ emissaries, would speak on beforehand to prepare. Summits typically take months to prepare, with deputies gathering in person to hash out differences before leaders arrive but in this case, because of health precautions, they are convening remotely, which could make reaching compromises harder.

The summit will be complicated by an oil price war between two members, Saudi Arabia and Russia, and rising tensions between two others, the United States and China, over the origin of the virus, which has infected nearly 400,000 people globally and killed more than 17,200.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has welcomed the fiscal and monetary steps taken by some countries, but said more would be needed, especially in the fiscal arena. Surveys show the pandemic is battering the global economy.

Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said given monetary policy constraints, the G20 countries’ only option to support growth might be fiscal stimulus, but that could raise the risk of a debt crisis, with “devastating effect on global growth.”

“This is something that G20 leaders will have in mind if they go for stimulus packages,” Demarais added.

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