Covid-19 Attack on Socio-Economic Conditions

It was the last night of December when the whole world was enjoying the New Year celebrations when WHO received a message of dozens of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan city of China. In January the same cases start appearing in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the USA, and other countries, respectively. WHO (World Health Organization) declared it a Global Pandemic when the global number went high to 9000 in 18 countries. The worldwide lockdown was imposed owing to the fear of this virus.

Undoubtedly, it endangered human life and health but it destroyed global and local socio-economic dealings—an alarming reality. Companies resurrect supply chains until they settle down. China was the bedrock of the chain which was hit the first and now, it is going to take an unprecedentedly long time to resume.

Most Affected Sectors:

The sectors which are affected the most are:

·        Travel and Tourism: 10.4% of global GDP with 310M jobs overall.

·     And other most hitting industries are relating to consumers, retailing, and hospitality—hotels and restaurants.

Broadly, the COVID-19 crisis  has affected the average salary workers in markets, travel industries, and in other retailing sectors the most.  Frontline emergency respondents are working on the risk of their lives.

The UN’s Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to the COVID 19 Crisis warns that:

“The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it is affecting societies and econ­omies at their core.”

The impact of this pandemic may vary from region to region but it is destroying lives, economy, and social dealings of the people; this is a fact, which we are bound to accept.

“10% of global GDP is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UN-Chief Sector’s Economy Overview

• The European Union’s tourism industry is going to lose €1B. /month
• The shipping center with 250,000 workers, has suspended the operations
• The automotive industry is also intense from an abrupt stoppage in functioning
• Having travel restrictions, a huge amount of US$252 billion is going to lose by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
• Textiles industries are deprived of consumers’ demand. Bangladesh have lost revenue of US$3 billion which affected 2.17 million workers

“We must increase investment in safe and decent working conditions for frontline workers and ensure that this pandemic does not leave long-lasting scars on economies, people, and jobs."

Alette van Leur, Director of the Sectoral Policies Department of the ILO.

S&P crashes drop to 49% in 2000 in 2 years, to 60% from 2007-2009 but fell up to 1 by 3rd during this pandemic in just a month. Investors are hesitant to invest during this crisis.

But the encouraging thing is that all these economic crises are going to be V-shaped; meaning that the economy will grow at the same rate as it was deprived of. But it will only be possible by getting rid of this deadly virus, firstly and then taking urgent actions and making policies regarding the economy to resume the worth of the world. This will take untiring efforts and self-stake risks to rise again as human beings. All the calamities, cause destruction but teach lessons which would help a Man to lead a warrior life.

Author: Shoaib Abid

 From UET Lahore