The Milan stock exchange's FTSE
Mib index closed 5.4% down on 23,427 points on Monday amid fears
of the economic impact of the coronavirus emergency.
Some 30 billion euros of share value went up in smoke.
The coronavirus emergency will push Italy into recession,
economists are forecasting.
A technical recession is almost inevitable after negative
growth of 0.3% in the last quarter of last year, with GDP
falling by 0.5%-1% this year, they believe.
"There will certainly be a technical recession," Lorenzo
Codogno, founder of LC Macro Advisors in London, told ANSA.
"The 2020 estimate is between -0.5% and -1%," he said.
Raffaella Tenconi, chief economist at ADA Economics, said
unless the situation is swiftly resolved a contraction of 1% in
GDP this year is "plausible".
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