Global lockdowns to contain the spread of coronavirus have
been imposed for weeks – even months in some countries and are causing an
economic catastrophe. Besides making job and salary cuts, many industries
around the world are closing down their businesses leading to a loss of
livelihood.
In fact, the economic scenario is at its worst in the USA due to
the health outbreak and is expected to be at its lowest since the 1930s. Additionally, the employment rate in America has risen to 33 million since the middle of March. The
EU has also announced its collective GDP to shrink by 7.4% this year.
Simply put, the situation is alarming and to reciprocate
some damage, government authorities all over the world are announcing stimulus
packages – reserved for catastrophic global economic collapse.
In this regard, Ceyhun Elgin, an economics professor at
Columbia University collected responses from 166 different countries to compare
the COVID-19 stimulus packages worldwide.
According to Elgin’s report, the USA has committed to the
largest rescue package of any country in pure dollars terms over three phases -
$8.3 billion, $192 billion, and $2.5 trillion. However, the U.S. measure equates
to an estimated 13% of GDP.
On the other hand, Japan’s relief packages work out just
over 21% of GDP, while Spain and Italy have announced stimulus packages
estimated to be 7.3% and 5.7% of GDP respectively.
