Covid crisis comes with challenges but also offers opportunities

AS recessions go, Covid was an unusually deep one, with many advanced and emerging economies contracting by well over 10 per cent from peak to trough - and a few by closer to 20 per cent. However, it was also unusually brief, with the period of contraction lasting for only one to three months in most countries, as well as atypically strong. Incoming data suggest that the global economy is on track to expand by more than 5 per cent in the third quarter alone.

While the speed of that early recovery is undoubtedly good news, it has come with a very important catch. Rapid initial growth was facilitated by loosening restrictions on patterns of work and social activity. But that very same easing, together with a raft of public health mistakes, has been responsible for the widespread resurgence of the virus.

FINDING THE BALANCE