Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2022)

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The COVID-19 pandemic caused far-reaching economic consequences^[1] including the COVID-19 recession, the second largest global recession in recent history,^[2] decreased business in the services sector during the COVID-19 lockdowns,^[3] the 2020 stock market crash (which included the largest single-week stock market decline since the financial crisis of 2007–2008), the impact of COVID-19 on financial markets,^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} the 2021–2023 global supply chain crisis,^[10] the 2021–2023 inflation surge, shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic including the 2020–present global chip shortage, panic buying,^{[11][12][13][14]} and price gouging.^[15] The pandemic led to governments providing an unprecedented amount of stimulus, and was also a factor in the 2021–2022 global energy crisis and 2022–2023 food crises.

The pandemic affected worldwide economic activity, resulting in a 7% drop in global commercial commerce in 2020. Several demand and supply mismatches caused by the pandemic resurfaced throughout the recovery period in 2021 and 2022 and were spread internationally through trade.^[16][17][18] During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses lost 25% of their revenue and 11% of their workforce, with contact-intensive sectors and SMEs being particularly heavily impacted. However, considerable policy assistance helped to avert large-scale bankruptcies, with just 4% of enterprises declaring for insolvency or permanently shutting at the time of the COVID-19 wave.^[16]

Amidst the recovery and containment, the world economic system was characterized as experiencing significant, broad uncertainty. Economic forecasts and consensus among macroeconomics experts show significant disagreement on the overall extent, long-term effects and projected recovery.^[19] A large general increase in prices was attributed to the pandemic. In part, the record-high energy prices were driven by a global surge in demand as the world quit the economic recession caused by COVID-19, particularly due to strong energy demand in Asia.^[20][21]