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The spread of Covid-19 has shaken people’s lives around the globe in an extraordinary way, threatening health, disrupting economic activity, and hurting wellbeing and jobs. Since our last Economic Outlook update, in early March, multiple virus outbreaks evolved into a global pandemic, moving too fast across the globe for most healthcare systems to cope with effectively. To reduce the spread of the virus and buy time to strengthen healthcare systems, governments had to shut down large segments of economic activity. At the time of writing, the pandemic has started to recede in many countries, and activity has begun to pick up. The health, social and economic impact of the outbreak could have been considerably worse without the dedication of healthcare and other essential workers who continued to serve the public, putting their own health at risk in doing so.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is a global public health crisis without precedent in living memory, and continues to result in a widespread loss of life and severe human suffering. To contain the spread of the virus and save lives, most governments throughout the world imposed stringent containment measures. Activity in many sectors was shut down completely and travel and mobility curtailed. These necessary measures have succeeded in slowing the spread of infections and reducing the death toll, but have resulted in large short-term economic disruption and job losses, compounded by falling confidence and tighter financial conditions. The global economy is now experiencing the deepest recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with GDP declines of more than 20% in many countries during shutdowns and a surge in unemployment.
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