There are several voices that have recently alerted investors to the strong likelihood of a slow recovery in the economy and the labour market. As indicated last week by several members of the FED and yesterday it was Steve Schwarzman, chief executive officer of Blackstone Group, who is confident of a V-shaped recovery, however he did not fail to share Jerome Powell’s opinion on the prolonged time that it will take time to resume economic activity to pre-crisis levels of COVID.
On the other hand, data from non-farm payrolls in the USA and today from PMI in Europe reveal that, at least in the short term, the economy has reacted positively to the gradual opening of several North American countries and states, even without new treatments or vaccines. It remains to be seen what will be the behaviour of the pandemic, if there really is a second wave and the reaction of governments to this situation, and the US Treasury Secretary has already said that the country will not stop again, a position that should be shared by many other countries given the economic cost of that option.
Photo by United Nations Covid-19 Response.
