Global risk managers are expecting a prolonged and painful global recession as a result of COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread.
The World Economic Forum published a report on Tuesday based on the views of 350 of the globe’s top risk professionals.
The report highlights key concerns and looks into the implications and effects of the response to the pandemic.
The risk professionals agree the COVID-19 pandemic and the world’s response to it represent a historic event that will change the world in the long term.
The report ties the length and severity of the economic fallout to the actions of the healthcare systems, saying the timing and efficacy of an economic recovery depends on solving the health crisis.
As governments around the world try to balance slowing the spread of the virus with getting back to some sense of normal economic activity, the report underlines the need to adequately manage public perceptions of risk.
The inevitable fallout of the lockdowns will include high structural unemployment that’s likely to knock consumer confidence and the speed of economic recovery and make existing inequality even worse.
That, in turn, will knock on to mental health and global social cohesion.