An emergency economic committee has been set up to assess COVID-19’s impact on sectors of Malta’s economy, following the business community’s rising concerns.

Composed of Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri and Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo, and representatives from state entities like Malta Enterprise, the Economic Stimulus Committee will meet with business and bank representatives to assess their industry needs amidst the virus-induced economic slowdown.  

The committee will assess the situation across sectors and propose measures to mitigate the impact already felt on the islands.

“The set of measures which will be announced in due course will abide by the EU state-aid decisions and programmes approved for this particular circumstance,” Edward Scicluna told Business Today.

These decisions will be taken by EU Finance Ministers at the forthcoming Eurogroup/ECOFIN meetings, due to be held early next week, Scicluna added.

Malta’s tourism has already suffered a hit following a travel ban announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela this week, from countries that include France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

This comes as Malta registered its seventh case confirmed case of coronavirus yesterday.

Mandatory self-quarantine with fines of €1,000 if breached as well as spot checks are some measures introduced yesterday to contain the spread of the virus.

Yesterday, the World Health Organisation has officially characterised the COVID-19 coronavirus as a pandemic in light of 122,331 cases and 4,389 deaths of coronavirus worldwide.