During an IMF and World Bank panel yesterday, the European Central Bank’s President Christine Lagarde stated that the ECB would be prepared to impose further emergency measures to tackle the continuing economic fallout from the resurging Covid-19 infections. ‘We are still in the long grass for the moment and there is still a lot of work to be done, especially as from this corner of the world in Europe, we are seeing recurrences of contagion’ she stated. ‘We are seeing maybe a second wave on the horizon or hitting the coastline of Europe and we better make sure that all the arsenal that we have available is actually dealing with the situation by adopting the right policies’, she added.
Over the last few days Europe has seen a huge surge in coronavirus cases which has prompted France to declare a public health state of emergency, with both the UK and Germany announcing tough new measures to try to curtail the spread of the disease. Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said yesterday that the ‘exponential’ increases in daily cases, along with the increases in deaths across the region is a cause of ‘great concern’.
Lastly, it's zero hour for Brexit. Boris Johnson and his government will have to decide over the next few hours whether to abandon the trade talks or continue beyond the end of the week in the hope of getting a deal completed. A two-day summit began yesterday in Brussels where EU leaders have called for trade talks to continue. However, Johnson did set today as judgement day. Dominic Raab, the British Foreign Secretary, said earlier today that while the UK was disappointed by the European Union’s demand that London give more concessions to secure a trade deal, he believed ‘a deal is close and can be done’ adding ‘With goodwill on both sides we can get there’.