The global epidemic is still raging, and the world economy has been severely affected by the epidemic. The world has an urgent need to strengthen cooperation on anti-epidemic and vaccine research and development, defeat the new coronavirus and pandemic, eliminate threats to public health and safety, and emerge from the economic and social crisis.
Nearly half a billion jobs have disappeared almost overnight.
A commentary in the latest issue of The Economist notes that the coronavirus pandemic has had the biggest impact on the world economy since the Second World War. Sequestration and a decline in consumer spending led to an implosion of the labour market, with nearly 500 million full-time jobs worldwide disappearing almost overnight. World trade shuddered as factories closed and countries closed their borders. Only unprecedented central bank intervention in financial markets, government aid to workers and bankrupt businesses, and the widening of government budget deficits to near wartime levels could avert a deeper economic catastrophe.
The shocks were inevitable, and the resulting losses and collapses were almost synchronized, with some countries, regions, and industries hit particularly hard, and some even on the brink of collapse. Services such as tourism are the hardest hit.
Because of the firm and strong prevention and control, some countries such as China have been able to control the epidemic quickly and effectively. So far, mainland China has been more than 50 consecutive days without new indigenous confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia, the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival eight-day long holiday received a total of 637 million domestic tourists, the average daily passenger traffic is about nearly 90% of the same period last year, the transportation industry and tourism has basically returned to normal.
But in most countries of the world, the epidemic situation is still serious, in addition to the United States, Europe, South America and some countries in South Asia, the number of newly diagnosed cases is still increasing significantly, the death toll is rising, some areas and even a second wave of the epidemic outbreak, the epidemic anxiety and fear in the minds of people, the economy of many countries are still unable to get rid of the suffering of the epidemic disaster.
The world economy under the epidemic has three major characteristics. The first is three sharp declines: a sharp decline in economic growth, a sharp decline in international trade and a sharp decline in industrial supply chains; the second is three sharp increases: a sharp increase in unemployment, a sharp increase in government budget deficits and a sharp increase in national debt; and the third is three stops: a sharp stop in factories and enterprises, a sharp stop in the service sector, and a sharp stop in tourism, aviation and transportation.
There are two main reasons for the improved recovery of the world economy: first, China has achieved strategic results in combating the epidemic, and its production and business activities have recovered rapidly, not only taking the lead among the world's major economies in achieving positive growth, but also continuing to grow at a relatively fast pace, which not only brings hope to the recovery of the world economy and strengthens the world's confidence, but also injects positive energy into the recovery of the global economy, which is another major contribution of China to the world. Second, the world's major economies, from the United States to Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan to Russia, South Korea and other major economies, have in recent months restarted economic activity and increased various rescue and stimulus measures, so that the global economic situation has subsequently improved.
Overall, the world's major economies are doing better than the pessimistic expectations of previous months, and the global economy is "recovering from the abyss of the crisis". But the global economic catastrophe is far from over. All countries will now embark on a long climb, but it will be a difficult process, expected to be long, bumpy and full of uncertainty, and if the follow-up measures do not keep pace, it will be easy to regress.