TOKYO, March 23. /TASS/. Postponing the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to next year due to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic will cause international financial losses of about $5.8 bkn, Kyodo agency reported referring to the forecast of professor of economics at Osaka University Katsuhiro Miyamoto.

According to the forecast, in this case another fundraiser would need to be held for athletes training and maintenance of sports facilities. In addition, the additional qualifying competitions will also require large financial investments.

On March 7, Japanese financial company Nikko Securities announced the results of a study according to which cancelling the competition would cost the Japanese economy about $74.2 bln. The revenue of Japanese corporations in 2020 is expected to fall by 24.4%.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in more than 150 countries, including Russia.

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, over 300,000 people have been infected around the world and more than 13,000 have died.

Russia has identified 367 cases so far. The Russian government has launched an Internet hotline to keep people informed about the coronavirus situation.