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The OECD sounded the alarm about coronavirus on Monday, warning of the possibility that it would halve global economic growth this year from its previous forecast.

The Paris-based group lowered its central growth forecast from 2.9 per cent to 2.4 per cent, but said a “longer lasting and more intensive coronavirus outbreak” could slash growth to 1.5 per cent in 2020.

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It defined a more intensive outbreak as one that spread “widely” throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America and issued its warning as new cases were reported around the world and the death toll continued to climb.

The OECD, a group of mostly rich countries, said the effect of widespread factory and business closures in China alone would cut 0.5 percentage points from global growth as it reduced its main forecast to 2.4 per cent.