A once-in-a-century crisis—a Great Disruption unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic—hit the world economy in 2020. The pandemic reached every corner of the world, infecting more than 90-million and, so far, has killed close to 2-million people worldwide. Governments around the world responded rapidly—and boldly—to stem the health and economic contagion of the crisis. Fiscal and monetary stimulus packages were quickly rolled out to save the economy.

The crisis responses, however, entailed difficult choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods, between speed of delivery and efficiency, and between short-term costs and long-term impacts.

Report by Unctad