Markets crash as the pandemic brings the economy to a halt
Stock markets plunged and economies locked down as COVID-19 spread, triggering a historic shock.
Global stock markets crashed and economies ground to a halt this year as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, triggering one of the most severe and sudden economic shocks in modern history as governments imposed lockdowns to contain the virus.
As the scale of the health emergency became clear, markets plummeted, suffering some of their steepest declines on record in a matter of weeks, as investors confronted the prospect of a sharp global recession and fled to the safety of cash and government bonds.
The economic shock was unprecedented in its speed and breadth. Lockdowns and restrictions imposed to slow the virus shuttered businesses, halted travel and brought swaths of economic activity to a standstill, throwing millions out of work and disrupting supply chains worldwide.
Governments and central banks responded with extraordinary measures, including massive emergency spending programmes to support households and businesses and aggressive action by central banks to stabilise markets and provide liquidity, an intervention of historic scale.
The crisis exposed the vulnerability of the globalised economy to a sudden, systemic shock and tested the capacity of governments and institutions to respond, while inflicting severe hardship on workers, businesses and communities around the world.
The pandemic-induced economic crash became a defining event, the sharpest downturn in generations, followed by an unusual and uneven recovery shaped by the course of the virus, the effects of the stimulus, and the lasting changes the pandemic wrought in work, commerce and daily life. The episode stood as a stark demonstration of the economic consequences of a global health emergency and of the extraordinary measures required to confront it, a pivotal moment in the economic history of the era.