South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks

The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis comes with a dire economic outlook. South Asia might well experience its worst economic performance in 40 years. The harsh reality of inequality in South Asia is that poor people are more likely to become infected with the coronavirus, as social distancing is diffic...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Serial
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2020
Subjects:	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ECONOMIC POLICY ECONOMIC SHOCK FISCAL TRENDS MONETARY POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/551641586789758259/South-Asia-Economic-Focus-Spring-2020-The-Cursed-Blessing-of-Public-Banks http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33478

id	okr-10986-33478
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-334782021-05-25T09:33:40Z South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks World Bank ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ECONOMIC POLICY ECONOMIC SHOCK FISCAL TRENDS MONETARY POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis comes with a dire economic outlook. South Asia might well experience its worst economic performance in 40 years. The harsh reality of inequality in South Asia is that poor people are more likely to become infected with the coronavirus, as social distancing is difficult to implement for them. They also have less access to health care or even soap, are more likely to have lost their job, and are more vulnerable to spikes in food prices. The unfolding economic crisis is unique in several ways. This report estimates that regional growth will fall to a range between 1.8 and 2.8 percent in 2020, down from 6.3 percent projected six months ago. The dire forecast is based on the analysis of several adverse impacts. South Asia finds itself in a perfect storm. Tourism has dried up, supply chains have been disrupted, demand for garments has collapsed, consumer and investor sentiments have deteriorated, international capital is being withdrawn and inflows of remittances are being disrupted. On top of the deterioration of the international environment, the lockdown in most countries has frozen large parts of the domestic economy. Public banks, discussed in the focus chapter of this edition, were at the center of weaknesses in financial sectors that accumulated during recent years. However, during this crisis, they might be part of the solution by providing countercyclical lending to the most vulnerable parts of the economy. 2020-03-25T16:42:32Z 2020-03-25T16:42:32Z 2020-04-12 Serial http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/551641586789758259/South-Asia-Economic-Focus-Spring-2020-The-Cursed-Blessing-of-Public-Banks 978-1-4648-1566-9 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33478 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication South Asia South Asia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ECONOMIC POLICY ECONOMIC SHOCK FISCAL TRENDS MONETARY POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19
spellingShingle	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ECONOMIC POLICY ECONOMIC SHOCK FISCAL TRENDS MONETARY POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 World Bank South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
geographic_facet	South Asia South Asia
description	The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis comes with a dire economic outlook. South Asia might well experience its worst economic performance in 40 years. The harsh reality of inequality in South Asia is that poor people are more likely to become infected with the coronavirus, as social distancing is difficult to implement for them. They also have less access to health care or even soap, are more likely to have lost their job, and are more vulnerable to spikes in food prices. The unfolding economic crisis is unique in several ways. This report estimates that regional growth will fall to a range between 1.8 and 2.8 percent in 2020, down from 6.3 percent projected six months ago. The dire forecast is based on the analysis of several adverse impacts. South Asia finds itself in a perfect storm. Tourism has dried up, supply chains have been disrupted, demand for garments has collapsed, consumer and investor sentiments have deteriorated, international capital is being withdrawn and inflows of remittances are being disrupted. On top of the deterioration of the international environment, the lockdown in most countries has frozen large parts of the domestic economy. Public banks, discussed in the focus chapter of this edition, were at the center of weaknesses in financial sectors that accumulated during recent years. However, during this crisis, they might be part of the solution by providing countercyclical lending to the most vulnerable parts of the economy.
format	Serial
author	World Bank
author_facet	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
title_short	South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
title_full	South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
title_fullStr	South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
title_full_unstemmed	South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks
title_sort	south asia economic focus, spring 2020 : the cursed blessing of public banks
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/551641586789758259/South-Asia-Economic-Focus-Spring-2020-The-Cursed-Blessing-of-Public-Banks http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33478
_version_	1764478850179268608

South Asia Economic Focus, Spring 2020 : The Cursed Blessing of Public Banks

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