The political economy of Covid-19

Both the United States and the Eurozone economies are expected to crash by 7.5 percent and 6.7 percent respectively in 2020. More than 22 million Americans lost jobs over the last five weeks since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in that country. China is the only economy which is expected to experience positive growth at about 1 percent compared to the average of 6 percent in previous years.

Coming closer home, at the beginning of the year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) forecast a growth rate of 3 percent for the continent. Last week the IMF projected that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Sub Saharan Africa will contract by 1.6 percent due to Covid-19. The South African Reserve Bank says that country’s GDP will contract by 6.1 percent this year.