Over the past few weeks, European countries have stepped up virus containment measures aggressively, with most of the region now in lockdown. Gauging the exact economic impact of these measures is hard, but it is almost a certainty by now that Europe will experience a very deep recession, with falls in gross domestic product ((GDP)) in the double-digits, in annualized terms, during the first half of the year.
While the near-term GDP decline will most likely exceed the hit experienced during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the difference this time is that the recession is not