The Meercovo economy enters a surprise downturn, but is this the beginning of a regional recession?
It was a shocking regional announcement, when the Meercovo Statistics Office (MSO) announced that the Meercovian economy had shrunk by 1.01%. The RM saw a sharp decline to its lowest level against the Zacjas (in Zanjact) since 3 of its members walked out a few months ago.
The Meercovian Finance Minister has faced sharp criticism for "over-investing". After Zanjact announced a 42 billion budget investment, Meercovo announced a similar 33 billion plan, despite having an economy almost a quarter of the size of Zanjact's.
The Meercovian treasury has long been accused of 'punching above its weight', however even its relatively small economic plan was met with criticism for being too ambitious in comparison to Zanjact.
And today the FM blamed his own economic plan for the downturn. However, he believes that this was because plan was not ambitious enough. The Treasury is looking for a further 20 billion RM to pour into the economy over the next few days to steady the ship.
The recession has been met with calls for the regional government to immediately establish a regional bank, which would provide economic aid to Meercovo.
While Meercovo is nowhere near the stage that it requires a bailout, some politicians in Meercovo are suggesting that they would ask for a 'healthy investment', with some suggesting it would be close to 50 billion RM.
The FM stated that even though the mini-recession had wiped 113 billion off the economy, the impacts from the recent 33 billion investment (thought to be worth 70 billion to the economy) had not yet been incorporated. This means that the net economic loss is expected to still be around 90 billion RM, a negative result, but less than 1% GDP loss (around -0.85%).
The FM is expected to announce how Meercovo will deal with the recession in the coming days. Sources suggest that a huge economic investment is what the FM is planning, to add to the 33 billion.
Whatever happens, investors in TOO are waiting to see the economic impact elsewhere in the coming days.