EU’s Gentiloni Sees No Reason for Economic Panic Over Omicron

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union’s economies have “no reason to panic” over the omicron variant, a senior official said, even as governments are rushing to introduce travel restrictions and markets are tumbling because of renewed uncertainty.

“I am not saying that we won’t face problems,” particularly in the tourism industry, EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “But overall our economies are adapted to these kind of crises because of the vaccines.”

Gentiloni added that the economic impact of the latest restrictions introduced by governments should be “weaker” than in previous waves. 

The former Italian prime minister justified new measures taken by some European member states to tackle the increasing number of Covid cases in the bloc still due to Delta variant, which have included various levels of lockdowns. But he added that he didn’t see the conditions for a total lockdown.

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