The Week That Was, March 9th – March 16th 2020:

Posted on 15. Mar, 2020 in: TWTW

The coronavirus outbreak dominated the week’s news:

Denmark’s borders were shut down at 12.00 Saturday and will remain firmly closed until at least April 13th – all foreigners who cannot demonstrate a credible reason to enter the country will be turned away. On Sunday the government offered to cover companies struggling with the coronavirus with up to 75% of employees’ salaries if they promise not to fire workers.

On Friday parliament passed emergency legislation that provides the state with wide-reaching powers to slow the spread of the virus – Health Minister Magnus Heunicke now has the authority to ban large gatherings of people at public events, ration essential medicines at pharmacies, and order supermarkets to ration food to counter hoarding.  The new law also legally requires anyone who knows someone infected with corona to report them to the police or a doctor

Major parts of the public sector, including schools, daycare centres, and non-critical government institutions are to be shut down for two weeks to prevent the coronavirus from spreading – Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said everybody should do what they can to isolate themselves to prevent the virus from bringing down the country’s health care system and warned of even tougher measures.

As desperate shoppers stormed supermarkets Food Minister Mogens Jensen warned he would consider a ban on hoarding.

The Danish Health Authority advised people not to shake hands or hug others and not cough or sneeze in the vicinity of elderly passengers – it also warned that up to 5,600 people in this country could die from the coronavirus and even if the disease subsides this summer it could return later in the year in two different versions.

The National Board of Health announced a change of strategy in the fight against the virus from ‘containment to delay’ – which, according to Professor Thomas Benfield of Hvidovre hospital, is an acceptance that that the spread of infection is inevitable.

Finance Minister Nikolaj Wammen warned that Danish exports totaling DKK102bn (€13.3bn) to Italy, Iran, China, and South Korea are at risk from the virus and 53.000 jobs are in the danger zone.

Politics/Economy:

Danish exports enjoyed a strong start to the year, rising to a seasonally adjusted 5.3 percent year-on-year in January, to DKK 61.4bn (€7.8bn), following a 3.2 percent fall in December.

The rate of inflation increased slightly in February – the consumer price index rose 0.8 percent year-on-year following a 0.7 percent increase in January.

Industrial production dropped 2.1 percent year-on-year in January 2020, following a downwardly revised 5.7 percent fall in the previous month, the third straight month of decline in output.

The ruling Social Democrats stabilised their position as the country’s biggest party – a new poll by Epinion for DR News showed the party would win 27% of the vote if an election was held today, 1.8 percentage points up on its June result.

Four of the Alternatives’ five MPs quit the party but will continue in parliament as independents.

The newly formed ’Forward’ party is stuck on zero in the opinion polls – none of the 1,602 respondents in a new poll said they would vote for the party that was founded by Liberal Alliance (LA) defectors Simon Emil Ammitzbøll-Bille and Christina Egelund following last year’s general election.

The Council on Climate Change (Klimarådet) said the government needs to significantly increase carbon tax to achieve its goal of a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

The European Commission approved the Danish government’s DKK 91m ($13.6m) aid scheme to compensate organisers for the damage suffered due to the cancellation of large events with more than 1,000 participants due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

A Danish patrol boat patrolling the Aegean sea defied an order to force back rescued migrants in the Mediterranean.

Social Affairs:

The National Police agreed to pay a homeless man DKK20.000 (€2,600) in compensation after admitting his human rights were violated when they banned him from Copenhagen for three months. in accordance with the zoning ban regulation.

Business:

All flights to Denmark from areas severely hit by coronavirus were cancelled – Copenhagen Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye called the crisis ‘the most significant travel disruptor since the Second World War’.

Scandinavian airline SAS initially asked employees to accept a 20% pay cut amid the coronavirus outbreak but later temporarily laid off  90% of its total workforce

Denmark’s National Bank kept its key deposit rate unchanged at a negative 0,75% and said it would offer extraordinary loans to banks to ensure adequate liquidity for banks.

The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) said the stability of the Danish financial sector has not been affected by the coronavirus outbreak and remains well capitalised.

While analysts at Nordea, the biggest Nordic bank, predicted the adverse effects from the coronavirus on the Danish economy will be ‘noticeable but not devastating’ FXStreet, the leading independent portal dedicated to the Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, expects the economic impact of the coronavirus to be ‘very significant.’

And That Was the Week That Was, March 9th – March 16th 2020: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).