Tackling coronavirus (COVID-19)
Focus on the global economy
Focus on the global economy

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the deepest economic recession in nearly a century, threatening health, disrupting economic activity, and hurting well-being and jobs. Extraordinary policies are required to walk the tightrope towards recovery, which will shape the economic and social prospects of the coming decade.

This page features the latest OECD data, recommendations and policy advice regarding the economic impact of COVID-19, as well as a curated collection of earlier OECD economic content.

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10/06/2020
The global economic outlook is highly uncertain.

The lockdown measures brought in by most governments have succeeded in slowing the spread of the virus and in reducing the death toll. But they have also frozen business activity in many sectors, widened inequality, disrupted education and undermined confidence in the future.

The consequences will be severe and long-lasting, and the path to economic recovery remains highly uncertain.

> OECD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
10/06/2020
Living with Covid-19: Two scenarios for the world economy

In the face of extreme uncertainty, the OECD’s Economic Outlook presents two possible scenarios: one where the virus continues to recede and remains under control, and one where a second wave of rapid contagion erupts later in 2020. With or without a second wave, the effects of the coronavirus will be severe.

> WATCH THE VIDEO (2:30)
Living with Covid-19: Two scenarios for the world economy
23/04/2020
Covid-19 shock: What lessons can we learn for competition and global markets?

The Covid-19 pandemic has shocked our world. Our healthcare systems are under intense pressure, and the economy is suffering badly too, with stalling trade and investment, and massive job losses adding to human suffering. We talk to Frederic Jenny, Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School in Paris and chair of the OECD Competition Committee.

> LISTEN TO PODCAST (11:04)
Covid-19 shock: What lessons can we learn for competition and global markets?
See our latest policy advice

This new series brings together data, analysis and recommendations on a range of topics related to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the global economy.

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COVID-19 and fiscal relations across levels of government
The focus of this brief is on the policy responses that governments can and are taking through the channel of inter-governmental relations to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Sub-national governments are playing a crucial role...
31/07/2020
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Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses
This note is developed by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). It examines how SMEs are likely to be affected by the current coronavirus epidemic, reports on early evidence and estimates...
15/07/2020
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Productivity gains from teleworking in the post COVID-19 era
The ongoing health and economic crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the required physical distancing measures force many firms to introduce telework (working from home) on a large scale. This may catalyse wider adoption...
15/07/2020
> read
Investment screening in times of COVID-19 and beyond
The economic upheaval resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has led many governments to enhance their foreign investment screening mechanisms or introduce new ones – in the midst of an already steep drop of global FDI...
07/07/2020
> read
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This inventory focuses on the global economy, pulling together analysis and data directly and indirectly related to the broad and far-reaching economic challenges arising in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19). From productivity and income redistribution to tourism and SMEs, this collection brings together a broad range of policies to promote sustainable economic growth and build resilience for an inclusive and green recovery.

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31/07/2020
Policy response
COVID-19 and fiscal relations across levels of government
The focus of this brief is on the policy responses that governments can and are taking through the channel of inter-governmental relations to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Sub-national governments are playing a crucial role in the current crisis, and past experience suggests they will need sufficient support to ensure they can confront the risks. Co-ordinated action across different levels of government is essential to ensuring that responses to the crisis are effective across all regions within countries
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31/07/2020
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OECD Economic Surveys: South Africa 2020
The COVID-19 outbreak is worsening an already fragile economic outlook. Since 2013, growth has been modest and unemployment has been rising. Policy uncertainty has been the main driver of low confidence and subdued investment. Following a sharp fiscal deterioration in recent years, the crisis also heightened debt sustainability challenges. Curbing the public sector wage bill, restructuring SOEs and containing spending growth in higher education are urgently needed to improve spending efficiency and restore fiscal sustainability. Supporting the economic recovery in the short-run while accelerating structural reforms to increase potential growth is key. In the medium term, developing tourism, boosting transport infrastructure investments, promoting renewable energies and strengthening the social protection system can contribute to more sustainable and inclusive growth.SPECIAL FEATURE: SOCIAL PROTECTION AND TOURISM
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23/07/2020
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Revenue Statistics in Asian and Pacific Economies 2020
Revenue Statistics in Asian and Pacific Economies is jointly produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTP) and the OECD Development Centre (DEV) with the co-operation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Pacific Island Tax Administrators Association (PITAA), and the Pacific Community (SPC) and the financial support from the governments of Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This edition includes a special feature on the tax policy and administration responses to COVID-19 in Asian and Pacific Economies.It compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for Australia, Bhutan, People’s Republic of China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tokelau and Vanuatu ; and comparable non-tax revenue statistics for Bhutan, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nauru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Thailand, Tokelau and Vanuatu. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well-established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Asian and Pacific economies enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Asian and Pacific economies and with OECD, Latin American and Caribbean and African averages.
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22/07/2020
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OECD Economic Surveys: Greece 2020
Greece’s economy had been expanding by nearly 2% for over three years before the COVID-19 shock. Structural reforms, high primary budget surpluses and debt measures underpinned Greece’s recovery and rising confidence. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, abruptly interrupting the recovery and adding new challenges to raising inclusiveness, competitiveness and growth. This Survey proposes an ambitious set of reforms to overcome the COVID-19 shock while promoting a stronger and more inclusive growth. Aiding businesses and workers to upgrade their activities and skills and to shift to more promising sectors would accelerate the recovery and enhance resiliency to future shocks. Raising productivity and investment growth will require reducing barriers to competition, increasing the public administration and justice system’s effectiveness, cutting red tape and accelerating the repair of the banking system. Strengthening active labour market programmes, education and training programmes, better supporting carers, and reducing the high labour tax wedge would expand job opportunities and improve inclusiveness. Raising the quality of public spending and improving the effectiveness of the tax system would help Greece to gradually shift the primary budget balance back to surplus, maintain its hard-won fiscal credibility and support inclusive growth.SPECIAL FEATURE: REJUVINATING GREECE’S LABOUR MARKET TO GENERATE MORE AND HIGHER-QUALITY JOBS
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20/07/2020
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OECD Economic Surveys: Slovenia 2020
Slovenia acted swiftly to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite extensive fiscal measures, the economic impact is severe with a recession in 2020. The economic recovery should pick up, but a new outbreak could lead to higher long-term unemployment and lower growth. Looking further out, population ageing is leading to a higher number of pensioners as the labour force becomes smaller and older. These developments are creating two main long-term challenges. The first is to contain ageing-related spending increases in pensions and health and long-term care. Longer working lives is key to secure the pension system's fiscal sustainability, while better use of economic signals is needed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health and long-term care systems. The second challenge is to sustain growth with a changing workforce. In the near-term, underutilised labour resources, such as older and low-skilled workers, need to be mobilised. Thereafter, maintaining growth and income convergence requires faster productivity growth, pointing to a need for continuously improving labour allocation.SPECIAL FEATURES: PUBLIC POLICY CHALLENGES OF AGEING; LABOUR MARKET INSTITUTIONS FOR AN AGEING LABOUR FORCE
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15/07/2020
Policy response
Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses
This note is developed by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). It examines how SMEs are likely to be affected by the current coronavirus epidemic, reports on early evidence and estimates about the impact, and provides a preliminary inventory of country responses to foster SME resilience.
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15/07/2020
Policy response
Productivity gains from teleworking in the post COVID-19 era
The ongoing health and economic crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the required physical distancing measures force many firms to introduce telework (working from home) on a large scale. This may catalyse wider adoption of teleworking practices also after the crisis, with a wide range of impacts and uncertain net effects on productivity and other indicators. Public policies and co-operation among social partners are crucial to ensure that new, efficient and welfare-improving working methods emerging during the crisis are maintained and developed once physical distancing is over. To maximise the gains for productivity and welfare inherent in the use of more widespread telework, governments should promote investments in the physical and managerial capacity of firms and workers to telework and address potential concerns for worker well-being and longer-term innovation related in particular to the excessive downscaling of workspaces.
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09/07/2020
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OECD Economic Surveys: United States 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US economy hard. Fiscal and monetary support measures were rapidly deployed and there remains space for further policy support, if needed. However, with the shuttering of many businesses, unemployment has surged and many have left the labour force. Bringing people back into work quickly is important as the recession risks leaving behind a long-lasting negative economic impact. Occupational licensing and non-compete agreements are impediments to moving to new employers. Low-skilled workers and disadvantaged groups tend to be particularly affected by these barriers. A further barrier to labour mobility is housing market regulation. Reforms are also essential to boost productivity and ensure that all have the opportunity to benefit from future growth, especially strictly enforcing competition policy. Environmental performance has continued to improve along some dimensions, with greenhouse gas emissions falling since 2005, and energy security being strengthened.SPECIAL FEATURES: MODERNISING STATE-LEVEL REGULATION AND POLICIES TO BOOST MOBILITY; ANTI-COMPETITIVE AND REGULATORY BARRIERS IN THE LABOUR MARKET
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07/07/2020
Policy response
Investment screening in times of COVID-19 and beyond
The economic upheaval resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has led many governments to enhance their foreign investment screening mechanisms or introduce new ones – in the midst of an already steep drop of global FDI flows. Investment screening was already enjoying a heyday before the COVID-19 crisis – the pandemic is accelerating, rather than triggering this trend. The accumulation of the two waves of new measures may bring about transformational change to investment screening policy practice and to the way governments and societies view the benefits and risks associated with foreign investment.
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03/07/2020
Policy response
COVID-19 and global capital flows
The COVID-19 crisis has triggered major disruptions for exchange rates and global capital flows. Cross-border portfolio investment stopped in many emerging markets as well as in some advanced economies in March 2020. Countries have not had to resort to capital controls. To support foreign currency liquidity, several emerging markets have intervened in the foreign exchange market and relaxed rules on capital inflows.
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02/07/2020
Policy response
Paid sick leave to protect income, health and jobs through the COVID-19 crisis
This brief discusses policy developments and evidence on the incidence of sick leave during the first three months of the crisis. It concludes that paid sick leave can be a particularly effective tool during de-confinement, as part of a rigorous testing, tracking, tracing and isolating strategy.
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26/06/2020
Policy response
COVID-19 and the low-carbon transition: Impacts and possible policy responses
The focus of this brief is on the immediate steps that governments can take to ensure that emergency measures implemented to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis do not derail their efforts to address pressing environmental challenges and improve the environmental health and resilience of societies.
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25/06/2020
Policy response
The COVID-19 crisis and state ownership in the economy: Issues and policy considerations
The COVID-19 epidemic is disrupting business activity, causing demand to collapse and straining global supply chains. Based on the OECD Product Market Regulation (PMR) indicators, this note considers the policy challenges raised by government interventions, with a special focus on the governance of state-owned enterprises and exit strategies from state ownership.
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24/06/2020
Policy response
The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on development finance
This note discusses the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on financing for sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries eligible for official development assistance (ODA).
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22/06/2020
Policy response
Retirement savings in the time of COVID-19
This policy brief details the impact of COVID-19 on retirement savings schemes, describes some of the policies already being implemented in different countries and provides policy guidelines.
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16/06/2020
Policy response
The territorial impact of COVID-19: Managing the crisis across levels of government
This paper takes an in-depth look at the health/social, economic, and fiscal impact related to the COVID-19 crisis. It provides good practice examples from all OECD countries and beyond, to help mitigate the territorial effects of the crisis, and offers ten takeaways on managing COVID-19’s territorial impact, its implications for multi-level governance, subnational finance and public investment, as well as points for policy-makers to consider as they build more resilient regions.
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16/06/2020
Policy response
COVID-19 and the retail sector: impact and policy responses
The retail sector is of paramount importance across OECD countries. It operates as a gateway to consumers from upstream sectors, accounts for almost 5% of GDP, and employs about 1 in 12 workers. COVID-19 has dramatically disrupted the sector, with the shock differing massively between brick-and-mortar versus online shops, essential versus non-essential stores, and small versus large retailers. This document lists five policy measures that countries need to take now for the benefit of firms, workers and customers to shield the retail sector from the effects of the crisis and enhance its resilience.
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16/06/2020
Policy response
Policy implications of Coronavirus crisis for rural development
This note focuses on the implications of COVID-19 on rural development and the policy responses that OECD member countries are adopting. It first discusses the economic effects on rural regions followed by an identification of opportunities and associated challenges. The note then summarises how governments are responding to the crisis and identifies how governments can prepare to leverage opportunities. The note will be subsequently revised with further inputs provided by countries.
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12/06/2020
Policy response
COVID-19 and international trade: Issues and actions
In an unprecedented global health crisis, trade is essential to save lives and livelihoods; and international co-operation is needed to keep trade flowing. In the midst of significant uncertainty, there are four things we can do: boost confidence in trade and global markets by improving transparency about trade-related policy actions and intentions, keep supply chains flowing, especially for essentials such as health supplies and food, avoid making things worse, through unnecessary export restrictions and other trade barriers and even in the midst of the crisis, think beyond the immediate. Government support today needs to be delivered in a way that ensures it serves the public interest, not vested interests, and avoids becoming tomorrow’s market distortions. OECD is working with other IOs to support governments through timely and objective evidence and analysis to inform policy choices.
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10/06/2020
Report
OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2020 Issue 1
The OECD Economic Outlook is the OECD's twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. The Outlook puts forward a consistent set of projections for output, employment, prices, fiscal and current account balances.Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well as for selected non-member countries. This issue includes a general assessment of the macroeconomic situation, a series of notes on the macroeconomic and structural policy issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak and a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country.
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