With the COVID-19 pandemic still spiralling out of control, the best economic outcome that anyone can hope for is a recession deeper than that following the 2008 financial crisis. But given the flailing policy response so far, the chances of a far worse outcome are increasing by the day.
Read Here – Project Syndicate
During the financial crisis, when the global economy faced its gravest threat since the 1930s, policymakers sprang into action. To stimulate the economy, central banks slashed interest rates and politicians spent lavishly. As a result, the recession, though bad, was far less severe than the Depression. Unfortunately, however, that quick response nearly exhausted governments’ economic arsenals. Seven years later they remain depleted. Central banks’ benchmark interest rates hover above zero; government debt and deficits have ballooned. Should recession strike again, as inevitably it will, rich countries in particular will be ill-equipped to fend it off.
The region is currently paying a high social cost for the lack of attention paid to public health, and these costs will grow ever more severe in the absence of concerted action. Obesity is nearing epidemic proportions in MENA, with some of the highest rates in the world.
