The net effect of the economic and credit damage arising from fighting the coronavirus will be clearly negative for major European countries, even as they put policies in place to support companies and workers.

The economic and trade disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak is spreading from the APAC region to the rest of the world.  View Moody's latest analysis on our specially created topic page. 

The spread of coronavirus is slowing economic growth significantly, affecting a bigger swath of North American companies. More than 60% of North American non-financial companies we rate are highly or moderately exposed to the effects of the outbreak today, compared to 45% in our first heat map published 16 March. Non-food retail is now considered highly exposed, while the homebuilding, steel, real estate, and advertising sectors are now moderately exposed.

The two-notch rating downgrade reflects our expectation that private creditors will likely incur substantial losses in the current government debt restructuring process. The economic and financial shock stemming from the coronavirus outbreak has compounded the Argentinean government’s funding stress, forcing it to reduce payments on its debt obligations over the coming years.