Countries are ‘highly unlikely’ to impose full lockdowns again if there’s a second wave, analysts say

CNBC reports that сountries are very unlikely to impose another full lockdown even though there’s a resurgence of new coronavirus cases in some parts of the world, analysts told.

The situation is unlikely to be a repeat of March, Suresh Tantia, senior investment strategist at Credit Suisse’s APAC CIO office, told CNBC on Thursday. That was when the pace of virus cases started to intensify in the U.S. and Europe, after first surfacing in China last December.

“This second wave of virus is a concern for investors ... but I think the key difference is that unlike last time in March, this time it’s highly unlikely that we would see a shutdown of the global economy,” he said.

“If you look at the March selloff, the reason why markets sold off was not because of the virus concerns, it was mostly because the global economy shut down,” Tantia added. “It’s a concern for the markets, but as long as we don’t see a repeat of March ... I think markets will look through this and focus more on recovery over the next few quarters.”

Hartmut Issel, head of APAC equities at UBS Global Wealth Management, also told CNBC that countries are “very unlikely” to go down the path of a total lockdown again.

“Locking down an entire country ... cost(s) you up to 3% of GDP per month, so even the richest nations on the planet cannot afford another two, three months complete lockdown,” he said.