- From the financial market's point of view, it has never been the question of the number of deaths. It's about the negative financial consequences of closing factories, cities and countries and telling people to stay home, says Martin Guri, chief strategist at the analysis firm Kepler Cheuvreux.

News of more people infected and dead in Italy this weekend helped the Stockholm Stock Exchange crash by four percent when it opened this week. On Tuesday, the fall continued with another 1.7 percent.

China important market for Sweden

SAS, which presents its last quarter results on Wednesday morning, is hit hard financially by canceled flights. Of course, the situation will quickly get worse if it becomes difficult or impossible to keep the flight to more countries.

Several large Swedish export companies have flagged that they may soon find it difficult to keep up production unless China opens closed factories and cities. China is an important market for Sweden, not least for Volvo and thereby subcontractors in especially Western Sweden.

According to Martin Guri, the corona virus is the event that has the greatest opportunity to stop the entire world economy since the investment bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in New York in 2008. It caused the global financial system to stall, and thereby the rest of the global economy.

- The difference this time is that you know more about what's going on, says Martin Guri.

Must not go to work

If people do not go to work or business on a large scale due to fear of contagion, it is still difficult to know if or when it would result in a "stop" in the economy.

And already there are people in Sweden who are not allowed to go to their jobs. For example, at Kepler Cheuvreux in central Stockholm.

- We have people working in Milan. An employee who recently came from there may not come to the office without working from home, ”says Martin Guri.