The pandemic led to unprecedented challenges requiring a rapid response from both a public health and an economic perspective. Governments acted quickly with more than $8 trillion of monetary rescue programmes and planned stimulus.
As longer term models are readied, programmes can be designed with greater precision, improved management and monitoring, and adaptability ensuring success across complex delivery channels.
There are tough questions to be answered about how long each measure should be maintained and when it will need to be scaled back or ended. Any shift from direct support to stimulus must be timed carefully and decisions need to be carefully balanced against potential public health implications.
In this paper, we examine the key economic considerations for governments around the world as they move from responding to COVID-19, towards a ‘recover’ phase and ultimately to a position of having sufficient flexibility to thrive in these fast-changing times.