For the past two weeks, we are in the middle of one the severe stock market crashes in the history. And nobody can honestly say where it will end.

On Thursday, the leaders of the G20 will hold virtual (teleconferences) summit to save the world from this serious financial crisis due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged Saudi Arabia to help the world from the worst financial crisis in history. Pompeo stressed that “as a leader of G20 and an important energy leader, Saudi Arabia has a real opportunity to rise to the occasion and reassure global energy and financial markets when the world faces serious uncertainty”.

United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres warned that unless the world came together to curb the spread of coronavirus, millions of people could die. Guterres has called the G20 group of leading economic powers for coordinated efforts for a “war-time” stimulus “in trillions of dollars” to help poor countries.

The Civil Society 20 (C20) has issued a statement calling on G20 leaders to respond to changes in the labor market and education system in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The current crash is different from 1987, 1998 and 2008. The 1987 crash is remembered as ‘Black Monday’ but the stock market recovered. The South East Asia financial crisis of 1998 also recovered fast but Malaysia lost half of its wealth overnight.

Then came the 2008 stock market crash but the world got over that disaster pretty quickly on a 10 year spending spree for shares and other assets. Most experts thought that this would continue for long. But all of a sudden outbreak of coronavirus pandemic covered almost all countries of the world. Countries around the world are fully in lockdown, shutting down airports, imposing travel restrictions and completely sealing their borders.

Copied from Arab News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (25 March 2020)