Democracies slapped with Covid-19 debt bills

New Zealand is officially in a recession, while Australia is teetering on the brink

 
Some of the world’s island nations, which shut themselves off from the rest of the world during the global health emergency are paying a high price.

Economic data from New Zealand shows the country of five million recently entered aa recession—two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Democratic nations were among those to implement strong health measures aimed to containing the spread of Covid-19.

However, funding the extra spending led to extra debt, which has been carried through the post-Covid environment.

Greg Jericho is the Policy Director at the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute, who said the pandemic was uncharted waters for many decision-makers.

“It’s always a little bit difficult to cast around blame for how governments and even central banks acted during the pandemic.”

The International Monetary Fund recently published data examining gross and net debt for 2022.

It showed G20 nations are bearing the brunt when it comes to post-Covid recovery.

“There was this sense that essentially the pandemic is gone.

“There was this since that we’re out of lockdowns and things will go back to normal. We have not grasped that it wasn’t a once in 100 year medical shock, it was a once in 100 year economic shock,” Jericho said.