Covid shock vs global financial crisis

The pandemic is not as bad as the 2008-09 global downturn

Topics
Coronavirus | 2008 financial crisis | Lockdown

T T Ram Mohan 

T T Ram Mohan

The worst crisis in centuries. The worst crisis in a century. Worse than the global financial crisis (GFC). As lockdowns everywhere ground the global economy to a halt, the characterisations of the pandemic were extreme.

The last one came from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) managing director. More than six months on, these characterisations appear wide of the mark. The immediate impact of the pandemic has been greater than that of the GFC. According to the IMF, the world economy is poised to shrink by 4.4 per cent in 2020, with the pandemic having begun at the ...

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First Published: Fri, November 13 2020. 00:21 IST
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