COVID-19 hit G-20 economies four times harder than financial crisis: OECD

The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world’s major economies four times harder than the global financial crisis did at their respective peaks, according to the OECD.

The countries in the Group of 20, which account for some 90 percent of the global economy, saw a collective 6.9 percent drop in their gross domestic product in the second quarter, several times worse than the 1.6 percent drop they saw in the first quarter of 2009, when the financial crisis was at its worst.

The hardest hit countries included India, which saw a 25.2-percent drop, followed by the United Kingdom at 20.4 percent and Mexico at 17.1 percent.

The United States saw a 9.1 percent drop, below the G-20 average, but better than the total among OECD countries, which came out to 10.6 percent.

One reason the G-20 figure wasn’t even worse was China’s 11.5 percent rebound in the second quarter, which tempered the average. China was hit with the virus and its attenuating lockdowns in the first quarter.