IMF to make $50b available in emergency aid

Bloomberg

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide $50 billion in emergency facilities to low-income and emerging-market countries to mitigate the economic shocks of the coronavirus, including $10 billion in concessional loans.
“Our member countries need us more than ever,” the IMF said on its website Wednesday. “Discussions between IMF teams and country officials are advancing quickly.”
The IMF has received requests for emergency financing from almost 20 countries in Africa and expects 10 additional countries on the continent to seek its help, it said.

IMF Approves $1.3bn Fund Facility for Jordan
The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board approved a four-year $1.3 billion program for Jordan, Minister of Finance Mohammad Al Ississ said in an emailed statement.
The board’s decision to sign off on the extended fund facility program at a time global uncertainty is mounting in the face of the coronavirus pandemic signals the IMF’s confidence in Jordan’s economic reforms, he said. It also shows support for its efforts to mitigate the impact of the virus on people and vulnerable sectors of the economy, according to Al-Ississ.
“The recent measures taken by the government to protect the physical and economic health of our citizens in light of the coronavirus not only fit within the program’s framework, but are well aligned with it,” Al-Ississ said.
After months of talks with the IMF, the Middle Eastern country in January reached a staff-level agreement on a four-year program based on growth-supporting structural reforms and fiscal discipline.
“We will continue to work with the fund, in partnership with the Jordanian private sector, to mitigate the inevitable economic impact of the coronavirus on Jordanian businesses and citizens,” Al-Ississ said.

IMF sees developing countries needing $2.5trn for Covid-19
Bloomberg

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it’s working to get aid to developing nations whose own resources will fall short of the $2.5 trillion that they need to address the coronavirus pandemic.
The fund has received inquiries or requests for aid from 50 emerging nations and 31 middle-income countries, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a webcast briefing. She said the world economy is already in a recession that will be as bad or worse than the 2009 downturn and reiterated the IMF’s willingness to put its $1 trillion in resources to work.
“Our current estimate for the overall financial needs of emerging markets is $2.5 trillion,” she said, adding that the figure is a conservative estimate. “We do know that their own reserves and domestic resources will not be sufficient, and it is in this context that our members are asking us to do more, do it better and do it faster than ever before.”
Group of 20 leaders pledged in a joint statement after a teleconference summit to inject more than $5 trillion into the global economy and do “whatever it takes” to overcome the pandemic.
Georgieva’s comments followed a conference call meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the main advisory panel of the IMF’s 189 member countries. The IMF is going beyond its traditional lending facilities and will explore additional options to help members that experience foreign exchange shortages, Georgieva said.
World Bank President David Malpass said in a separate statement that he and Georgieva are working to flesh out an approach to debt relief for the world’s poorest countries that request forbearance. They plan to present the strategy in time for the Spring Meetings of the institutions, which will convene in a virtual format in mid-April, Malpass said.
“Beyond the health impact from the pandemic, we expect a major global recession,” Malpass said.
“Poorer countries will take the hardest hit, especially ones that were already heavily indebted before the crisis.”

Covid-19: UK house sales set to plunge 60%
Bloomberg

UK house sales are set to plunge by 60% in the next three months as the coronavirus outbreak batters the economy.
The slump in the second quarter, which is usually among the most active sales periods, will be followed by a further decline in the three months through September, according to a report on Thursday from real estate portal Zoopla. The hit to prices should feed through more slowly and will depend on the extent of the economic slowdown.
“Covid-19 presents a major new challenge,” Richard Donnell, director of research and insight at Zoopla, said in an emailed statement. “The initial impact of external shocks is to reduce consumer confidence and put a brake on housing demand and the number of people moving home, which we can see in our latest figures.”
The partial lockdown of the country ordered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has restricted people’s movements and closed all but essential businesses. That has made it nearly impossible for sellers to market homes, with potential buyers unable to view properties. And the government has warned that stricter rules could be imposed if necessary.
While the logistics of the lockdown impede deals, the economic fallout from the pandemic will dictate the
impact on house prices, according to Zoopla.
“The greater the economic shock and rise in unemployment, the greater the potential impact on house prices over the spring and into the summer months,” according to the report.
The UK.economy will contract by at least 10% in the first half of the year, according to Bloomberg Economics’ estimates. Senior U.K. economist Dan Hanson said support provided by the Bank of England and the Treasury should prompt a turnaround in the second half of the year if the outbreak is contained by the summer.
The virus is already weighing on deals, with the number of homes placed under offer in the seven days through March 22 down 15% from the previous week, Zoopla data show.
Prior to the outbreak, the U.K. housing market was off to its best start in four years, with price growth of 1.6% in February, up from 1.2% a year earlier, according to Zoopla’s U.K. cities index.