G7 finance ministers to plot joint coronavirus response

G7 finance ministers including UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak will take part in a conference call on the economic impact of coronavirus on Tuesday at 12:00 GMT.

Central bankers could also be involved in the call, and I understand the current plan is to produce a joint statement acknowledging the potential impact on growth and agreeing to work together.

This has raised expectations of a round of global interest rate cuts, to help bring confidence back to the world economy, reeling from the real and feared impact of the growing coronavirus epidemic.

Already the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) anticipates that global growth could fall to its slowest growth rate since the financial crisis. Chinese measures of manufacturing activity have collapsed to record lows in February.

There are some concerns that world central bankers may not have enough ammunition to help in such concerted action.

Indeed there is a fundamental issue that a feared global pandemic can not be solved by looser monetary policy.

US Stock Markets surged by over 5% after early news of the meeting.