Pandemic risks exacerbating economic and social divisions between countries

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The coronavirus pandemic threatens the future of the eurozone by creating huge economic divisions between its 19-member states during what is expected to be the deepest recession since the Great Depression, the European commission has warned.

The EU’s economic commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said there was an urgent need to mitigate the inevitable exacerbation of existing social and economic fissures, as countries emerge at different speeds from the unprecedented economic downturn.

Recessions tend to centre on one part of the economy; coronavirus has hit them all. The road to recovery will be long

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In a way, Britain should have been the country best prepared for the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the economy, because throughout 2019 barely a day went past without someone popping up to warn of the dangers of a cliff-edge Brexit.

But there are cliff edges and then there’s falling off the cliff, and not even the most pessimistic remainer would have been willing to predict what has happened since the UK went into lockdown at the end of March. While most of the attention has been focused – quite rightly – on the medical emergency, the economy has collapsed.