Top 6 sectors affected due to COVID-19 outbreak | Part 1

It was the Great Recession aka 2008 Financial crisis and we 90s Kids are again watching a similar recessionary crisis. Each individual in the world knows how a distinctive emergent virus can cause illness to every part of the human body. It is not the time of blaming any economy but how to survive in this new challenge. 

The Summarizer team took an initiative to publish a series of Impact and Outcome evaluation in summarized manner from C-19. In our first article, we are going to talk about three industry sectors affected the most in India & around the globe.

Every Economy has three questions to answer which reflects the strength of their economic system i.e., what to produce, how to produce and who receives the output of production. We learnt this in economic sessions in our 20s :) To answer the strength in today's world is being qualified with home isolation, early supply of vaccines to targeted individuals, social distancing, strategies to reduce moralities and demand for healthcare. If any economy fails to absorb these, failure would be the baseline for the pandemic.

  1. Stock Market: 

Every eye around the world has witnessed the high volatility in the markets starting from March 2020. Pandemic situations spread fear in investors around the globe that it will destroy economic growth.

Where the FTSE Index (In UK) and Dow Index (In US) saw the biggest quarterly drop in 1st quarter since 1987 along with different market index and stock falls.

India witnessed the highest ever one day fall recorded on 23rd March 2020, approx 13% fall in key indices and stocks. Also Nifty and Sensex fell 10% in early trading which activated “Trading Halt” of 45 mins. It was the 2nd time in the same month after 13th March when trading was halted for the first time after 12 years. BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 had their worst decline for 23% each after in March 1993 for Nifty 50 (Fall of 19.6%) and in 2001 for BSE Sensex (Fall of 15%).

2. Crude Oil Industry:

One of the most impacted industries due to C-19, where demand for oil has dried up due to lockdowns across the world. Brent crude price dipped around $20 in April (which is used outside the USA in the world) and WTI Price turned to negative for the 1st time in history.  The WTI futures contracts with May expiry fell by 300% to trade on NYMEX in April 2020 where in India, MCX had to settle at just INR 1 per barrel, that shows it was not prepared for unusual volatility in International Markets.

Price goes to negative since there is no consumption and storage capacity to store the oil. Increase in the number of market participants who are unwilling to risk doing physical deliveries and Oil traders believe crude prices will rally in the future which is called Contango market. Thus, spot prices are offered at super discounts to future prices.

A short take - There is no difference between a Developed vs Developing Country now to predict any new virus hitting the future - Do you see ? Markets are emotional, consumers sets new trends and uncertainty is felt right up to the bottom. 

3. Traveling Industry:

To limit the spread of C-19, countries posing strict restrictions from suspension of flights to border closure. In UNWTO report, restriction imposed by countries are segregated in four broad categories where, of total 217 counties are reported as

97 countries implemented total or partial border closure
65 counties suspended flights totally or partially
39 countries implemented border closure for specific group of destinations
16 countries implemented other measures

In such scenarios countries like Maldives will suffer the most where Tourism is the spine of the Economy. As forecasted by World bank GDP of Maldives to fall between 8.5 to 13.5 percent in 2020. Also, the Finance Minister said the expected total deficit is about US $778.2 million. In Jan 2020, Maldives was under total debt of over $3.36 billion, which will add economic burden on the economy along with other losses like revenue deficit, job loss etc.  Between January to March there was a record of about 161.7K travel booking cancellation to Maldives.

Last year in India, total foreign tourist arrival stood at 10.9 million with Forex earning around 210,971 crores. But due to travel restriction and lockdown in India from March 2020, Tourism industry expects to witness the sharp negative impact.

FAITH (India) in May 2020, shared the loss guidance for Tourism’s economic value at risk at around INR 10 lakh crore with Govt. for the survival of  the Tourism and hospitality sector in India.

The Last Lines ~ 

Without the use of Machine Guns, we are seeing downfall in major sectors. In our upcoming articles, we are going to bring three more sectors plus positive impacts in our lives. Follow us and let us know, if you are keen to read summarized articles like this.

Stay Classy !

This Blog shortens the detailed topics to help readers and does not give any sort of opinions.