As of November 2021, the U.S. goverment dedicated ***** percent of the GDP to soften the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This translates to stimulus packages worth **** trillion U.S. dollars Economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was felt throughout the whole world. Lockdowns forced many industries to close completely for many months and restrictions were put on almost all economic activity. In 2020, the worldwide GDP loss due to Covid was *** percent. The global unemployment rate rocketed to **** percent in 2020 and confidence in governments’ ability to deal with the crisis diminished significantly. Governmental response In order to stimulate the economies and bring them out of recession, many countries have decided to release so called stimulus packages. These are fiscal and monetary policies used to support the recovery process. Through application of lower taxes and interest rates, direct financial aid, or facilitated access to funding, the governments aim to boost the employment, investment, and demand. Stimulus packages Until November 2021, Japan has dedicated the largest share of the GDP to stimulus packages among the G20 countries, with ***** percent (*** trillion Yen or **** trillion U.S. dollars). While the first help package aimed at maintaining employment and securing businesses, the second and third ones focused more on structural changes and positive developments in the country in the post-pandemic future.

In December 2020, the United States Congress signed into effect the COVID-Related Tax Relief Act which would give *** U.S. dollars of aid to almost every American in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of January 2021, Americans living in households with an income of less than ****** U.S. dollars a year had spent an average of *** U.S. dollars from their stimulus checks. In comparison, those living in households with an income of more than ****** U.S. dollars a year spent ** U.S dollars of the same check.

Comparing the stimulus packages

The COVID-Related Tax Relief Act was the second stimulus package that was passed in response to the pandemic in the United States. In April 2020, congress passed a two trillion U.S. dollar economic relief package called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (or CARES) Act. This package provided every American in need with ***** U.S. dollars. Around ** percent of Americans approved of this relief package and supported its passing. However, after the first CARES Act check of ***** U.S. dollars, many Americans felt that the second stimulus check of *** U.S. dollars was too little to help, especially when compared to the stimulus paid out by other nations. Among G20 member countries, the United States came in fourth in size of COVID-19 fiscal stimulus packages as a share of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), at **** percent. In comparison, Japan passed the largest fiscal stimulus package, which amounted to about **** percent of its GDP.

COVID-19: impact on employment in the United States

Many Americans depended greatly on the economic relief provided by the stimulus package, as many businesses were forced to let their employees go due to economic strain, as can be seen in the unemployment rate in the United States. Some industries suffered more than others, such as the leisure and hospitality industry, which suffered the highest unemployment rate of any industry at **** percent as of January 2021 (not seasonally adjusted), largely due to its dependence on tourism and travel, which were greatly restricted under coronavirus-related restrictions. As of February 2021, approximately ** percent of Americans with an income of less than ****** U.S. dollars reported that they had personally lost a job due to the pandemic.

We conduct a comprehensive review of different economic policy measures adopted by 166 countries as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and create a large database including fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate measures. Furthermore, using principle component analysis (PCA), we construct a COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Index (CESI) that combines all adopted policy measures. This index standardises economic responses taken by governments and allows us to study cross-country differences in policies. Finally, using simple cross-country OLS regressions we report that the median age of the population, the number of hospital beds per-capita, GDP per-capita, and the number of total cases are all significantly associated with the extent of countries' economic policy responses.

In April 2020, the US government sent economic impact payments (EIPs) directly to households, as part of its measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic. We characterize these stimulus checks as a wealth shock for households and examine their effect on retail trading in Bitcoin. We find a significant increase in Bitcoin buy trades for the modal EIP amount of $1,200. The rise in Bitcoin trading is highest among individuals without families and at exchanges catering to nonprofessional investors. We estimate that the EIP program has a significant but modest effect on the US dollar–Bitcoin trading pair, increasing trade volume by about 3.8 percent. Trades associated with the EIPs result in a slight rise in the price of Bitcoin of 7 basis points. Nonetheless, the increase in trading is small compared to the size of the stimulus check program, representing only 0.02 percent of all EIP dollars. We repeat our analysis for other countries with similar stimulus programs and find an increase in Bitcoin buy trades in these currencies. Our findings highlight how wealth shocks affect retail trading.

Between April 27 and May 7 2020, many governments in Latin America and the Caribbean announced the launch of financial aid plans to help fight the economic crisis spawned by the novel coronavirus pandemic. In Peru, for instance, the national government assigned an economic stimulus package equivalent to almost nine percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). In turn, the state aid provided by the Mexican government represented around one percent of Mexico's GPD.

Despite the significant volume of fiscal recovery measures announced by countries to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, most recovery plans allocate a low percentage to green recovery. We present scenarios exploring the medium- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis and develop a Green Recovery scenario using three well-established global models to analyze the impact of a low-carbon focused stimulus. The results show that a Green Recovery scenario, with 1% of global GDP in fiscal support directed to mitigation measures for 3 years, could reduce global CO2 emissions by 10.5–15.5% below pre-COVID-19 projections by 2030, closing 8–11.5% of the emissions gap with cost-optimal 2°C pathways. The share of renewables in global electricity generation is projected to reach 45% in 2030, the uptake of electric vehicles would be accelerated, and energy efficiency in the buildings and industry sector would improve. However, such a temporary investment should be reinforced with sustained climate policies after 2023 to put the world on a 2°C pathway by mid-century.

The NextGenerationEU economic recovery package was agreed upon by the member states of the European Union in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide a stimulus to the European economy. Europe was hit particularly hard by the pandemic in early 2020, with countries such as Italy, France, and Spain experiencing severe economic contractions, alongside their public health emergencies. In order to provide a boost to their beleaguered economies, the NextGenEU package will provide funds to invest in strategic areas of the European economy over the period from 2021 to 2027. By far the largest share of the package is taken by the Recovery & Resilience Facility, which provides loans and grants to member in order to invest in projects promoting growth in green industries, to spur digitalization of member states' economies, and to invest in social, economic, and institutional development. Other programs included in the NextGenEU package range from the Just Transition Fund, which looks to support regions most affected by the transition to a green economy, to RescEU, which invests in supplies to respond to humanitarian crises.

Following the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union agreed on an economic stimulus package with its member states, known as the Next Generation EU (NextGenEU) recovery package. The largest component of NextGenEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), an instrument that will provide *** billion Euro in grants and *** billion Euro in loans to EU member states in order to invest in the long-term economic recovery from the pandemic. The RRF focuses on three areas of the member states' economies which are in urgent need of investment - provisions for a transition to green (renewable) energy sources, digitalization and modernization, and social, economic & institutional development. The member states were required to submit national plans for how they would spend the funds, with each member state largely free to determine its own needs. Around ** percent of the total RRF funds were allocated to Green Transition projects (not including projects which have a Green Transition element combined with one of the other categories), with member states such as Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Ireland allocating most of their funds to this category. On the other hand, Greece, Slovakia, Latvia and Cyprus all allocated more funds to projects which focus on social, economic, and institutional development. Germany was the country which dedicated the greatest share of its RRF funds to digital transformation, with around ** percent of its total.

The future of the European Union is a subject that can divide opinion. Some eurosceptic voices have been prophesizing the downfall of the bloc since at least the Eurozone crisis of the early 2010s and the UK's decision to leave the EU in 2016. On the other hand, federalists put forward the idea that European integration is once more moving forward towards "ever closer union", after Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed the union into action on a number of key policy issues, such as with the Covid economic stimulus and the energy measures in 2022 to replace Russian oil and gas. What can be seen in recent polling of European citizens is that there is significant variation between member states and different regions in the EU. The future of the EU: the citizens' perspectives Countries such as Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Lithuania show very high levels of optimism towards the future of the union, with ** percent of Irish respondents being optimistic, the highest share for any member state together with Poland. These countries, while being diverse, share some commonalities, mostly being smaller member states with populations of around **** million or less (except for Poland), suggesting that European integration may be perceived as more necessary in some smaller countries. Conversely, Greece, France, and Cyrpus all have a majority of respondents stating they feel pessimistic about the future of the EU. Again, these countries defy being lumped into one narrative about what causes this attitude among their citizens. One unifying thread could be that they have all experienced economic problems since the global financial crisis, great recession, and Eurozone crisis, although these issues are much more prevalent in Greece and Cyprus than in France. As France is one of the major powers in the EU, the negative outlook of its citizenry may not bode well for European cooperation in the coming years, which requires French leadership along with other powers such as Germany, Italy, and Poland. On average, EU citizens were more optimistic than pessimistic about the future of the union in 2024.

Since 2021, the large economies of Western Europe have been experiencing a surge in inflation, with inflation reaching as high as 11.84 percent in Italy during October 2022. During 2023 the rate of inflation in all these economies has fallen significantly, reaching as low as 0.67 percent in Italy and 3.17 percent in Germany. This inflationary episode is understood by economists to have been caused by several factors, notably the supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, pent-up consumer demand which was released after lockdowns ended, as well as policies of monetary and fiscal stimulus during the pandemic aimed at boosting economic activity.

The statistic lists the 20 countries with the lowest inflation rate in 2024. In 2023, China ranked 6th with an inflation rate of about 0.21 percent compared to the previous year. Inflation rates and the financial crisis Due to relatively stagnant worker wages as well as a hesitation from banks to so easily distribute loans to the ordinary citizen, inflation has remained considerably low. Low inflation rates are most apparent in European countries, which stems from the on-going Eurozone debt crisis as well as from the global financial crisis of 2008. With continuous economical struggles and a currently sensitive economic situation throughout Europe, precautions were taken in order to maintain stability and to prevent consequential breakdowns, such as those in Greece and Spain. Additionally, the average European consumer had to endure financial setbacks, causing doubt in the general future of the entire European Union, as evident in the consumer confidence statistics, which in turn raised the question, if several handpicked countries should step out of the EU in order to improve its economic position. Greece, while perhaps experiencing the largest economic drought out of all European countries, improved on its inflation rate. The situation within the country is slowly improving itself as a result of a recent bailout as well as economic stimulus packages issued by the European Union. Furthermore, the Greek government managed its revenues and expenses more competently in comparison to the prime of the global and the Greek financial crisis, with annual expenses only slightly exceeding yearly revenues.

In the financial year 2026, the estimated gross fiscal deficit in India was expected to be *** percent of the GDP. This would be a decrease from the previous year's deficit in the country. What is fiscal deficit? The fiscal deficit of the government is the difference between the total expenditure incurred and the total non-debt capital receipts of the government. It indicates the total borrowing requirements of the government. Impact from the pandemic Due to concerns over gradually slowing economic growth, the government increased its fiscal spending in early 2019. With the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and consequent lockdown, the unprecedented financial stimulus package led to the worsening of the gross fiscal deficit. This further stressed the tax revenue system across the country. A major impact of the pandemic was the projection of negative quarterly growth of GDP in June 2020 across India.