The Atlantic

The Coronavirus Recession Will Be Unusually Difficult to Fight

Consequences will linger even after the virus dissipates.
Source: Seth Wenig / AP

Global markets are volatile. Supply-chain disruptions are piling up. Economists are slashing forecasts. Investors are fleeing to the safety of bonds. The coronavirus epidemic is a public-health crisis, and it is morphing into an economic crisis, too.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast this month that in a best-case scenario, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and its fallout would slash global growth by half a percentage point. In a more likely scenario, given how governments are dithering on emergency financial measures and bungling their public-health responses, it might slash global growth , meaning that many countries would fall into outright recession.

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