China should increase fiscal input to safeguard funds for epidemic prevention

According to a statement on the Chinese Government website, citing the meeting of the standing committee of the politburo, Beijing would increase credit support at preferential interest rates to virus protection equipment producers, and improve targeted preferential financial services for regions, industries and companies affected by the epidemic.

China would also introduce a new round of fee and tax cuts, the statement read.

The statement urged local authorities to minimize the impact of the epidemic, stabilize the economy and maintain social harmony.

This comes after the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths in the outbreak’s epicenter, Hubei province, jumped to 14,840 new cases. The officials adopted a new methodology for counting infections.

Market Implications

With the reports of the jump in the new coronavirus cases in China, the risk sentiment took a big hit, with the safe-haven flows increasingly rapidly into the yen and gold while the Antipodeans, Wall Street futures and Asian equities saw some sharp declines.

• Coronavirus update killing risk assets, AUD/JPY -0.66% in a heartbeat