teleSUR – The global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will take at least two years, officials and experts said at an economic forum held in Athens.
“Recovery will take time. The economy cannot start simply by pressing a button. It will take two years,” British-Cypriot Nobel laureate economist Christopher Pissarides said on Thursday while addressing the Delphi Economic Forum VI.
“We will return to a kind of normalcy in 2024 at the latest,” said Gunther Oettinger, former European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources.
Compared to the financial crisis which broke out in 2008, this time recovery will be faster, but it will be nothing like turning on a switch, said Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
“The COVID-19 crisis will be a ‘V crisis.’ Great recovery will follow deep recession,” Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said, adding that governments should not repeat mistakes of the management of the 2008 crisis, in which there was a rush to restore budgets, but now emphasis must be placed on investments.
“This crisis is a formidable accelerator of the European and world economy. It is reinforcing the things we consider important,” said Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank.
It’s a wake-up call that helps uncover weaknesses of economies and accelerates underlying trends, like digitization. The crisis also highlighted the significance of international cooperation to address it, Trichet stressed.
