The coronavirus is the biggest emerging markets crisis ever

For countries like South Africa, India, Brazil and Malaysia, the financial shock wave from this pandemic is running ahead of the disease.

An overcrowded passenger train in South Africa, which is at the head of the list of vulnerable countries. AP

Adam Tooze

Apr 1, 2020 – 9.12am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

We used to think the 2007-08 financial crisis set the standard for a savage global shock. But that crisis took more than 12 months to spread from the overbuilt suburbs of California and southern Spain to the financial centres of the world.

The coronavirus pandemic has taken just three months to engulf first China and now Europe and North America. As it has swept West, it has triggered an economic crisis whose violence is set to exceed anything we have previously witnessed.

Foreign Policy