2020 is not over yet and probably so isn’t a series of bad news. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has gone for a toss already. We have already witnessed pay-cuts and job losses on a large scale. But is this all going to come to an end soon? Not really.
Enda Curran and Fregal O’Brien have made certain forecasts on Bloomberg regarding what all can potentially go wrong in the world economy before 2020 ends.
Major Concerns For The Economy
All of us have been banking our hopes on the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 for a long time now but, unfortunately, the same is not right around the corner. Even if a vaccine successfully clears all requisite trials, it is not going to be available on a very large scale, at least for now.
Another potential wave of the virus
While we have been impatiently waiting for a vaccine, various experts predict that the coming northern winter may bring in another wave of the novel coronavirus. This is scary not only from the health perspective but obviously, from an economic perspective too.
It has been quite a few months now since China contained the spread of novel coronavirus but statistics suggest that Chinese consumers are still reluctant to spend. Some of the major banks in China have reported the worst profit declines in more than a decade owing to the rise in bad debts.
Governments’ support measures are about to expire
In order to ease the burden on the general public, various governments had announced certain support measures which are set to expire in the coming months. These measures included relief packages to distressed workers, bank moratoriums on loan repayments etc.
According to economists, nations need more generous stimulus packages at this stage of the pandemic, however, data from various economies suggests that policymakers are planning to cut back on such support measures.
Read Also: What Are The 5 Best Moments Of 2020 So Far?
This poses a serious concern for economies all around the world because businesses are still not running to their full potential and are not even showing signs of recovery for making profits in the near future.
A report titled ‘Tackling the COVID-19 youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific’ by the International Labour Organization and the Asian Development Bank stated that around 4.1 million Indian youth have lost jobs amidst the pandemic.
Economists say that adding up jobs in the economy is a step in the right direction but it would result in a futile exercise until and unless there is some fiscal stimulus in the economy to set the pace.
The future is ‘not looking good’
Economic experts believe that in order to get a better idea of the economic conditions, we need to focus on the long term which is currently ‘not looking good’.
While nations are trying to put in their best efforts forward to fight this novel coronavirus, everything is being overshadowed by the continued spread of the virus. In order to bring the economies back on track, businesses need to run to their fullest potential but it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
For bringing down the economic costs, a significant proportion of the population needs to be immunized which is not going to be feasible in the near future. All in all, there are various concerns that are stalling the recovery of various economies across the world.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Bloomberg, Economic Times, The Print
Find the blogger: @RitikaaNijhawan
This post is tagged under: economy, economic conditions 2020, economic predictions, economic forecasts, what else could go wrong in economy, what else could go wrong in 2020, coronavirus, covid-19, pandemic, distressed economy, job losses, GDP, growth, revenue, companies, sales, forecast, future of indian economy, indian economy 2020
Other Recommendations:
India Is The 3rd Most Innovative Lower Middle-Income Economy In The World
