global economy

As swiftly as the lockdowns across Asia were imposed, the process of lifting them will be slow and uneven. That means the region is months, if not years, away from any semblance of normal.

A good number of the companies from the May 13 list are related to the healthcare and hygiene businesses — although many quite remotely so — thus playing to the Covid-19 pandemic theme.

Any resurgence in the number of infections will only worsen the [global economy]. The recent flare up of cases and re-imposition of restrictions in South Korea and parts of China are worrisome,” IHS Markit’s economists.

“We expect heightened rhetoric and fresh non-tariff action, but we think the situation is more likely than not to stop there, at least until the US election,” says Morgan Stanley.

Legendary investors Stan Druckenmiller and David Tepper were the latest to weigh in after a historic market rebound, saying the risk-reward of holding shares is the worst they have encountered in years.

In the absence of a viable and scalable vaccination programme, trying to project demand, supply, revenues and margins over the next two to three quarters is a largely futile exercise.

“No one can say how widely the Covid-19 pandemic may spread, and containment may take longer than currently projected,” said ADB’s chief economist Yasyuki Saswada

The world is now facing a pandemic of catastrophic health and economic consequences.

As the Covid-19 virus spreads globally, economic paralysis and unemployment follow in its wake.

Nearly the entire world is now in some state of lockdown, in various names and forms. The rationale is to break the chain of infection by reducing human interaction, ideally to near zero.