Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229298 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2020/74
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global crisis. The task for economic policy is to help keep people alive, enterprises afloat, and households out of poverty. The pandemic has macroeconomic dimensions. First, it affects macroeconomic stability and growth. Second, the tools of macroeconomic policy-fiscal and monetary policy together with debt management and exchange rate policy-must deal with the economic shock. Simultaneously, policy makers must find fiscal space to fund health, social protection, and livelihood support. Third, success in dealing with the virus itself will be a big determinant of macroeconomic outcomes: the size of the GDP loss, the duration of the recession, and the outcomes for the fiscal deficit and debt ratios. This paper discusses these macroeconomic dimensions, focusing on the developing world. The paper concludes that the pandemic could reinforce the existing trend towards higher social inequality.
Subjects: 
commodities
COVID-19
debt
growth
inequality
macroeconomic policy
poverty
JEL: 
E71
F01
I15
O11
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-831-3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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