Measuring the impact of COVID-19 with a view to reactivation

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Latin America and the Caribbean in a period of economic weakness and macroeconomic vulnerability. As the pandemic spreads across the region, its nature as a health, economic and social crisis is increasingly evident. The extent and duration of its effects, although still too uncertain to quantify, are becoming clearer. It will result in the region’s worst economic and social crisis in decades, with damaging effects on employment, the fight against poverty and the reduction of inequality.

The aim of this second Special Report is to quantify the economic impact of the pandemic in the short and medium term. With regard to the short term —during the course of 2020— estimates shed light on the dynamics of production, employment, poverty and income distribution, based on data available at 17 April 2020, for all the subregions of Latin America and the Caribbean and many of their economies.