Staff Correspondent

The country’s economy will suffer a lot if there is a significant coronavirus outbreak, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.

The warning came on the 9th day of the nationwide shutdown aimed at slowing down the spread of the highly contagious disease. However, the shutdown suspends many economic activities and puts thousands of jobs at risk.

The Manila-based multilateral lender early last month said the Covid-19 pandemic could wipe out $3.02 billion off Bangladesh’s $300 billion-plus economy in the worst-case scenario of a significant outbreak.

In such a scenario, 894,930 jobs will be lost, according to last month’s ADB analysis.

ADB yesterday said its preliminary estimates indicate that about 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP may be lost due to spillover effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic.