In Milan’s historic Savini restaurant, between the city’s Duomo cathedral and La Scala opera house, just three of 20 tables had customers on a recent evening, and the normally bustling pedestrian streets nearby were sparsely trod.

The dearth of visitors in Italy’s financial capital offers a glimpse into how the new coronavirus is hitting demand for goods and services. It could be a harbinger of recessions in both Italy and in the broader European Union as the epidemic expands.

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