South Korea braces for economic woes as Covid-19 cases soar

People waiting in a line to buy masks at a market in Daegu, South Korea, on Feb 24, 2020. - Yonhap

SEOUL (Bloomberg): South Korea warned that its fragile economic recovery is under threat from the coronavirus that has spread dramatically across the country over the past week, and pledged action to minimise the fallout.

The epidemic poses a "large concern that it will limit the trend of economic recovery started late last year", First Vice-Minister Kim Yong-beom said on Monday (Feb 24), according to the Finance Ministry. He cited a drop in domestic consumption and exports to China, among other impacts.