BERLIN: Germany, after coronavirus pandemic has shown a little downward trend, unveiled plans for a return to near-normality, including a May 15 restart of the Bundesliga, the European Union forecast a historic recession on the virus-battered continent.
Germany will allow all students back to school this month, shops to resume business and even restart the Bundesliga — though it will be spectator-free. It will become the first of Europe’s major football leagues to return to the field.
Countries in Asia joined Europe in easing the lockdowns that have kept swathes of humanity indoors for weeks and pummelled economies, leaving millions without jobs.
Elsewhere in Asia, workers went back to offices and museums and libraries reopened in South Korea, once home to the region’s second worst outbreak after China.
The central bank of Brazil, the hardest-hit country in Latin America, slashed its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, saying the economy needed “extraordinarily strong” measures to fight the pandemic’s impact.
On the political front, Poland’s governing parties agreed to postpone the May 10 presidential election after it became clear it could not be held via a postal vote because of the outbreak. A new date was not immediately clear.
So far, more than 73,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted the toll in the US could top 100,000 by the end of May.
The pandemic has killed more than 260,000 people globally and officially infected nearly 3.7 million, although because of limited testing, the number is believed to be far higher.
Europe accounts for the lion’s share of deaths and infections, though hardest hit Britain, Italy, Spain and France have seen a levelling off of new cases and fatalities.
The eurozone economy is forecast to contract by a staggering 7.7 per cent this year, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Paulo Gentiloni said.
“Europe is facing an economic shock without precedent since the Great Depression,” Gentiloni warned.
Governments are seeking to revive their economies by slowly lifting lockdown measures that have hemmed in more than 4.6 billion people worldwide — while avoiding a deadly second wave of the virus.
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