Milan bourse closes 5.4% down

(ANSA) - Milan, February 24 - The Milan stock exchange's FTSE Mib index closed 5.4% down on 23,427 points on Monday amid fears of the economic impact of the coronavirus emergency. Some 30 billion euros of share value went up in smoke.
    The spread between Italian and German 10-year bond yields closed 11 points up on 145 basis points, with a yield of 0.96%, amid coronavirus fears Monday.
    The coronavirus emergency will push Italy into recession, economists are forecasting.
    A technical recession is almost inevitable after negative growth of 0.3% in the last quarter of last year, with GDP falling by 0.5%-1% this year, they believe.
    "There will certainly be a technical recession," Lorenzo Codogno, founder of LC Macro Advisors in London, told ANSA.
    "The 2020 estimate is between -0.5% and -1%," he said.
    Raffaella Tenconi, chief economist at ADA Economics, said unless the situation is swiftly resolved a contraction of 1% in GDP this year is "plausible".
    London closed 3.34% down, Paris 3.94% down and Frankfurt 4.01% down.
    The Euro STOXX-600 index fell 3.79% with 352 billion euros of share value going up in smoke.