Impact of COVID-19 will be more profound than 9/11 attacks: CIBC’s Dodig

TORONTO – The head of CIBC says the impact of COVID-19 will be more profound than that of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States nearly two decades ago.

Victor Dodig says in an interview that while airport security changed after 9/11, this global health event – which has infected more than 1.4 million people and killed almost 83,000 – has affected everybody around the world to varying degrees.

He thinks governments and companies will start thinking more about self-sufficiency, about emergency and disaster recovery planning, and about remaking of global supply chains.

People will feel the economic pain for a while and Dodig says there may be more of a shift to saving for a rainy day mantra that has been out of favour for the last decade.

Dodig says the outlook for the Canadian economy has changed, which will affect CIBC’s business.

The bank’s current forecasts call for a recession, with negative GDP growth of 3.9 per cent in Canada in 2020 and negative growth of 3.3 per cent in the United States.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2020.

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