Efforts to contain virus and save lives should be intensified, and governments should plan stronger, more co-ordinated measures to absorb growing economic blow.

Increasingly stringent containment measures, needed to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), will necessarily lead to significant short-term declines in GDP for many major economies, according to new OECD projections.
OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría, in preparation for the G20 Virtual Summit that took place yesterday, unveiled the latest OECD estimates showing that the lockdown will directly affect sectors amounting to up to one third of GDP in the major economies. For each month of containment, there will be a loss of 2 percentage points in annual GDP growth. The tourism sector alone faces an output decrease as high as 70%. Many economies will fall into recession. This is unavoidable, as we need to continue fighting the pandemic, while at the same time increasing efforts to be able to restore economic normality as fast as possible. Read the full story here.