Mahathir: Coronavirus pandemic worse than 1997 crisis

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's former prime minister, stands for a photograph following a Bloomberg Television interview in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Monday, March 16, 2020.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former premier who steered Malaysia’s recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, expects the current coronavirus pandemic to hit the global economy even harder.

“This is worse than the financial crisis, ” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin. “This is really a terrible blow to the economies of the whole world.”