Covid-19 Economic Turbulence and Governments Stimulus Package: A Quest for Survival as Global Recession Looms in the 1st Quarter of 2020

Abstract

Covid-19 Economic Turbulence and Governments StimulusPackage: A Quest for Survival as Global Recession Looms in the 1st Quarter of 2020 IntroductionMany countries in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 witnessed the unrolling of emergency plans to save their economies as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus popularly known as COVID-19 just like the global financial crisis has wrecked markets globally (Martyr & Mukhopadhyay, 2020). Relative to previous comparable occurrences, such as the 2003 SARS epidemic, economies worldwide have largely become more interconnected with China playing bigger role in global output and commodity markets. As seen in OECD interim assessment, prior to COVID-19 Pandemic, economic activities and financial conditions had begun to improve steadily despite the existing trade tensions among some countries. Until the COVID-19 hit, even though weak, Growth was stabilising. Movement restrictions of people, as well goods and services, and other containment methods such as temporary factory shut down have cut manufacturing and domestic demands sharply worldwide. The global impact has lowered the confidence and growth of the services and manufacturing sector through business and leisure (tourism) travel, supply chains and commodity markets. Consequently, it has been projected that this year (2020) annual global GDP growth will drop to 2.4%, compared to the weak 2.9% in 2019 (OECD, 2020).The world is witnessing an economic maelstrom that may well be bigger than the financial crisis of 2008, In Europe, a robust and co-ordinated fiscal response is developed by leaders to shield businesses and households from the anticipated impact of the pandemic (FT reporters, 2020). The COVID-19 outbreak as witnessed has caused substantial suffering to people as well as significant economic disruption. Globally, countries are feeling China's output contractions in