New Delhi, March 6: The Indian economy is expected to face the brunt of worldwide novel coronavirus outbreak, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das. Although the adverse impact would be restricted to an extent, it remains inevitable as India is much more connected with the world economy than it was in the last two decades, the head of central bank said on Friday. Coronavirus in Delhi: One More Positive Case of COVID-19 Reported From Uttam Nagar, Total Cases in India Rise to 31.

One of the factor that benefits India under the current scenario is its detachment from the global value chain, Das said. His remarks came amid a warning issued by the S&P Global Ratings agency, warning the Asia-Pacific economies of suffering a $200 billion cumulative loss to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"India is much more integrated to global economy than it was 10-20 yrs ago so it'll be impacted to some extent (by coronavirus) but it's not that integrated to global value chain as some other countries, to that extent India remains insulated," the RBI Governor said.

Update by ANI

The manufacturing sector in China and Hong Kong has recorded a slump of around 40-50 percent amid shutdowns due to the fear of coronavirus outbreak. Even as South East Asia is cautiously returning towards industrial functioning, the fear of COVID-19 is gripping the world's western hemisphere, with a spree of cases being recorded in Italy, Spain and the United States. In the Middle East, Iran has been the worst ravaged, with nearly 80 fatalities so far.

In India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government would take proactive measures to assess the damage to economy due to the global coronavirus outbreak. The government would take regulatory measures if necessitated, she had said. "No need to press the panic button because of coronavirus epidemic, the outbreak will be a challenge if issues do not get resolved in three weeks," Sitharaman told reporters last week.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 06, 2020 12:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).