Swine flu spreads to 23 countries, WHO raises warning level to phase 4

The new type of flu originated from North America continued to ravage the globe. When the World Health Organization raised the warning level to level four, the swine flu epidemic had spread to 23 countries, with 117 confirmed cases in seven countries, including New Zealand and Israel. Yesterday, there were even suspicions of cases entering South Korea and Thailand. The WHO emphasized that it was too late for containment measures. The World Health Organization has upgraded the pandemic warning level from level three to level four, which will cause further impact on the global economy. Analysts estimate that global stock markets and bond markets will respond with sharp declines, with stocks possibly falling by 7%. The US dollar and Japanese yen, on the other hand, will continue to attract inflows of risk-averse funds, pushing their exchange rates even higher.