Coronavirus economics: Governments wage unprecedented war

• March 25 2020
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/coronavirus-economics-governments-wage-unprecedented-war_190427

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Governments around the world are resorting to the unthinkable in economic policy as they battle to immunise growth from deeper coronavirus carnage.

Gargantuan debt spending, printing of money, loan guarantees, tax breaks and even direct payments to workers are all in the highly unorthodox mix.

AFPsurveys the latest responses by major economies as COVID-19 has spread from China to infect the rest of the world, making a global recession all but inevitable:

BREAKING TABOOS

Germany, the European Union's toughest fiscal hardliner, now recognises that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

On Monday, Berlin said it would abandon its constitutional debt limits and raise 156 billion euros (US$168 billion) in new borrowing in a bid to stop Europe's largest economy from going under.