conomic pundits, as readers might have noticed, tend to talk about “cliff edges” a lot. Usually it’s for dramatic effect – an attempt to inject some life into what can be, at times, a dry subject. But in 2020 the cliche was true. This really was the year the global economy went over the edge of a cliff.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we experienced the biggest collapse in economic activity across the planet seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s – a historical period resonant with social catastrophe and political breakdown.
As a large proportion of the planet’s population stopped working, travelling, socialising, going on holiday, and having fun – either because they were forbidden from doing so or because they were afraid of infection – international GDP is estimated to have declined by around 4.5 per cent.
