Paris (AFP)
The Ministry of Economy and Finance will bring together representatives of businesses and various economic sectors on Friday morning to take stock of the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, he announced on Thursday.
This "very large" format meeting will bring together, around Minister Bruno Le Maire and his Secretary of State Agnès Pannier-Runacher, employers' organizations (Medef, U2P, etc.) and representatives of numerous sectors, such as those of the health, wood, automotive, luxury, food, sea, nuclear or rail, we said in Bercy.
The objective is "to listen to all these representatives on possible difficulties today, but especially tomorrow or the day after tomorrow" and also to see how they "anticipate difficulties if the (epidemic) continues", explained the ministry.
The Covid-19 virus appeared in late January in China's Hubei province, where many large international groups have factories. Beijing has put in place containment and quarantine measures, thereby paralyzing the economic activity of factories in the country, while the virus has already infected around 75,000 people and led to the death of more than 2,100 people.
Consequences are already being felt for many French companies, which are present in China or whose country is an essential link in the production chain.
On Thursday, the energy equipment and services group Schneider Electric thus indicated that its factory in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, had not restarted, while the hotel group Accor pointed out that 200 of its hotels in China and in Hong Kong had a stationary activity.
The air transport sector is also affected, while many companies, including Air France, have suspended their flights to and from China. Same thing for the automobile, Wuhan being a key production center for many manufacturers and equipment manufacturers, including PSA, Renault or Valeo.
Luxury goods giant Kering has already noted a sharp drop in sales in China in early 2020 due to the epidemic.
According to the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, the epidemic could at this stage cut French growth by 0.1 percentage point in 2020. "If it persists and the epidemic increases, of course that the impact will be greater, "he warned in mid-February.
© 2020 AFP