Malaysia: Economy in 2020 - the year that wasn't

Shoppers gearing up for Christmas at the Curve shopping mall in Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama): The ideal 2020 embedded in the mind of many Malaysians are the creation of a developed society, the assurance of economic justice and the birth of a competitive economy, instead the expectations were shattered when the first coronavirus case was traced in Wuhan in November last year.

A month later on Dec 31, 2019, China informed the World Health Organisation (WHO) of a few cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, and the first case outside China was reported on Jan 13, 2020 in Thailand and it did not take long for WHO to declare the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.