European automakers began shutting down factories Monday as governments impose confinement and other measures to curtail the coronavirus outbreak, which is expected to take a heavy toll on national economies.

The Bank of Japan on Monday unveiled a series of emergency monetary policy measures to shore up the world's third-largest economy, as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a global recession.

Oil prices extended the gloom on Monday after a Saudi-Russian price war and an equities meltdown sparked by the coronavirus pandemic saw their biggest weekly losses in more than a decade.

Saudi Aramco reported Sunday a 20.6 percent drop in 2019 net profit due to lower crude prices and production levels, in its first earnings announcement as a listed company amid an escalating price war.

Canadian lawmakers hastily approved a North American free trade deal Friday before announcing parliament would be suspended until late April over concerns about the new coronavirus.

The European Central Bank scrambled Friday to ease eurozone jitters a day after president Christine Lagarde spectacularly failed to convince financial markets with big-bang measures against the coronavirus shock.

Switzerland will close its schools in a bid to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, the government said Friday, adding that it would provide billions in aid to hard-hit businesses.

Sudan's economy has sunk into a deep crisis since the overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir almost a year ago, risking collapse and social unrest in a country in transition.

Oil prices jumped almost four percent in Asian afternoon trade Friday, reversing earlier losses sparked by the Saudi-Russia price war and fears about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Governments and central banks are throwing policy remedies against the coronavirus pandemic, but markets remain in freefall as the world economy faces its biggest crisis since 2008.