- The coronavirus pandemic has reached and devastated almost every country in the world.
- Its spread has left national economies and businesses counting the costs.
- The governments struggle with new lockdown measures to tackle the spread of the virus.
- Here are the details to help you understand the economic impact of the virus so far.
A recent BBC news article reveals the details concerning the colossal impact made by coronavirus on the whole world.
Global shares in continuous movement
Big shifts in stock markets can affect the value of pensions or individual savings accounts (Isas).
The FTSE, Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nikkei all saw huge falls as the number of Covid-19 cases grew in the first months of the crisis.
The major Asian and US stock markets have recovered following the announcement of the first vaccine in November, but the FTSE is still in negative territory.
The FTSE dropped 14.3% in 2020, its worst performance since 2008.
Job seekers face hardships during covid 19 crisis
Many people have lost their jobs or seen their incomes cut.
Unemployment rates have increased across major economies.
Millions of workers have also been put on government-supported job retention schemes as parts of the economy, such as tourism and hospitality, have come to a near standstill.
Job vacancies in Australia have returned to the same level of 2019, but they are lagging in France, Spain, the UK and several other countries.
The numbers of new job opportunities is still very low in many countries.
Countries in recession
If the economy is growing, that generally means more wealth and more new jobs.
It’s measured by looking at the percentage change in gross domestic product, or the value of goods and services produced, typically over three months or a year.
The IMF estimates that the global economy shrunk by 4.4% in 2020. The organisation described the decline as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The only major economy to grow in 2020 was China. It registered a growth of 2.3%.
Travel still far from taking off
The travel industry has been badly damaged, with airlines cutting flights and customers cancelling business trips and holidays.
New variants of the virus – discovered only in recent months – have forced many countries to introduce tighter travel restrictions.
Data from the flight tracking service Flight Radar 24 shows that the number of flights globally took a huge hit in 2020 and it is still a long way from recovery.
Hospitality sector totally shut allover the world
The hospitality sector has been hit hard, with millions of jobs and many companies bankrupt.
Data from Transparent – an industry-leading intelligence company that covers over 35 million hotel and rental listings worldwide – has registered a fall in reservations in all the top travel destinations.
Pharmaceutical companies make profits
Governments around the world have pledged billions of dollars for a Covid-19 vaccine and treatment options.
Shares in some pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine development have shot up.
Moderna, Novavax and AstraZeneca have seen significant rises. But Pfizer has seen its share price fall.
The partnership with BioNTech, the high cost of production and management of the vaccine.
The growing number of same-size competitors have reduced the investors’ trust in the company to have bigger revenue in 2021.
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Source : BBC
