Who would have thought three months ago that a tiny virus, an insignificant infectious agent, an invisible little critter arriving from nowhere, would manage in a few weeks to masterfully shake our lives (violently) and make us doubt our future?
France is currently going through an exceptional health and economic crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. To curb the spread of the virus, it has implemented a general lockdown.
Economies are at a standstill, companies are producing less or not at all, and consumers are buying less. The production of wealth in France will decrease, which should inevitably lead to a recession (a decline in GDP over two consecutive quarters according to Insee’s definition).
In the financial markets, these prospects have already caused indices to fall in Paris, New York, and Frankfurt. To prevent mass business bankruptcies and limit job losses, the government has taken several rescue measures.
It announced relief—deferment or cancellation—of company charges amounting to 32 billion euros in the month of March alone, a partial unemployment scheme, and has not ruled out proceeding with nationalizations. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank will put 750 billion euros on the table to purchase, among other things, state debt.
Will these measures be enough? It’s hard to say at the moment because everything depends on the duration of the pandemic. Some economists believe this crisis could allow us to completely rethink our economic model and include the climate emergency in it in the future.
