“The Economic Effects of Covid-19 .

Economics of the Pandemic – Novel Corona This outbreak is likely to result into heavy human, financial, economic and social costs on African Countries, but the so called silver lining to this is that an opportunity is there to re visit the economic and fiscal policy, rebuild stronger health and social sectors. The pandemic in its initial stages i.e. in nov-dec 2019, resulted in mass production shutdows and the disruption of the supply chain in China, now that being one of the largest exporter of the world, their shutdown had a mass global effect, Now with Africa having reported their cases of covid-19, the African countries are beginning to take the full impact. According to the United Nations Development Programme confirmed that due to the outbreak, a whole of $220 billion has been lost in whole of Africa and nearly half of all jobs in Africa have been wiped out. (UNDP, n.d.). These effects have had a huge economical effect, demand for Algerian raw materials (including crude oil etc.) and various commodities have taken a hit as every country has shut down the entry and exit ports of the country, the access to industrial components and manufactured goods have been hampered, without the international support from various organisations the continent could lose an entire generation of hard work said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. (UNDP, n.d.) In 2014-15, Africa managed to get annual growth rate of 3.3%, Now the backstory to this unsatisfactory rate of 3.3% is, the poor development strategies that only focused on the unfeasible capital- intensive industries, instead of investing in labour intensive industries because African countries have a lot labour- class population, this has lead to insufficient growth and further to constrain public finances, underfunded health systems, huge infrastructure deficits, rapid increase in public and private debts. Now that we have the history to the Algeria’s condition i.e. poor health condition, shortage of medicines, workers etc. This infection is likely to spark a humanitarian crisis which can also go unreported and under the books, if the virus reaches the poorer areas with low water, electricity and scepticism, this could devastate Africa. Thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the have successfully removed other diseases in African countries that are usually found in poor areas like diarrhoea with the help of a intelligent toilet that uses human waste to generate electricity, and also process that into manure for farming and run by solar energy. There is more factor that we haven’t considered, country like Algeria, the country ability to exploit the benefit of fiscal and monetary policies to minimize the pandemic’s economic impact is also limited. Central banks have gone robust on these policies and are all the short term benefits, African countries just lack the capacity and potential to so, there are many things to be considered before taking decisions like these like monetary argument and most importantly the after effect that prevent them from implementing national strategies. Algeria first needs to expands its fiscal potential to boost health expenditures, contain the pandemic, recover the hardest hit sectors, and eventually increase liquidity and stimulate domestic consumption. But to do that efficiently transparency should be present in the implementation process and also monitored by independent fiscal councils. The measures shouldn’t be restricted to Algeria only, they should be open to whole of continent, to make continent- wide improvement in the implementation of these policies, so that all the countries can improve their respective national health systems. If we speed up the activities between the activities between the countries in the continent, this will provide additional fiscal capacity to all the countries because the rules and regulations between the countries within the continent are quite relaxed as compared to the international trade between countries of a different continent. Secondly, Algeria needs to focus on its financial management, that will enhance the future productivity growth, this initiative will backup for emergency fund required in a situation like this, this fund can come in really handy in budget- constrained countries this scheme can also bring a marginal increase in domestic demand. Hence laying up infrastructures like these can benefit the country in these difficult and competitive times, and also at the same time provide security for the country’s future growth and industrialisation. 1.5 The Good Thing about Corona Virus Well, significant damage has been caused by this pandemic and the world has come to a temporary stop and there is more to come, this episode of corona virus hasn’t ended, but I guess there is a silver lining to this. We have to admit that the world is now quitter. In this state of depression, all the countries are supporting each other and are at each others disposal at a moment’s notice, On March 27, USA President Donald Trump signed a relief bill dedicated especially towards corona virus relief and also to prevent world-wide economic relief, this bill was worth $2 trillion. The guidelines, rules and regulations that the government has come up for the functioning of some organisations, that are vital right now, those practices can also lead to a better tomorrow as better sanitation practices can come in handy in the future, isolating different area’s and preventing any contamination these can be considered as a practice for future, if the situation future demands this, the ambulance services have gotten a lot effective and efficient, the police have a significant control on the areas the never had before. And the environmental effects, with the airline shut down, and because of the lockdown, no traffic on the roads and the factories shut down. China emissions fell by 25% in January itself, coal usage by 40% and the air quality index improved by 11.4%, In other countries also Nitrogen emissions have faded away over northern Italy, same has been observed in UK and many other countries. The following image shows the pollution level between January and February in China. At the end, we shall contribute and let the government containing the threats from the outbreak from the virus, people are spending time with their loved ones, Universities are online now, People are now learning the art of working from home, that beats traffic.