Italy Says Lockdown Aimed At Saving Economy From Virus

Italy said Monday its month-long lockdown of northern regions responsible for 40 percent of overall production was designed to save the rest of the economy from falling victim to the new coronavirus

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Mar, 2020 ) :Italy said Monday its month-long lockdown of northern regions responsible for 40 percent of overall production was designed to save the rest of the economy from falling victim to the new coronavirus.

But the Italian Stock Exchange -- propelled by broader declines linked to the oil market's collapse -- took little comfort from the government's quarantine measures.

Stocks were down more than 10 percent in mid-afternoon trade and the shares of Italy's Unicredit banking giant were down almost 15 percent.

The epidemic has managed to wipe out almost the entire 28 percent gain the Milan exchanged built up last year.

Italian leaders had been watching in anguish as COVID-19 kept killing dozens of people daily in areas around the tourist hotspot Venice and the financial capital Milan.

The toll shot up by 133 on Sunday to 366.

The government had by then decided to ring-fence more than 15 million people who live in the industrial heartland of Lombardy and surrounding areas until April 3.

Italy's economy and finance ministry openly conceded Monday that an effective quarantine of the northern quarter of the population would deliver a short-term shock.

But it also argued that this was the bitter pill Italy had to swallow for its economy to survive.

"A temporary downturn in some sectors or areas of the country ispreferable to a longer crisis that could spread to the whole economy viademand and supply effects," the ministry said a statement.