Global | Social welfare and COVID-19

This Economic Watch assesses the decline in social welfare resulting from the reduction in GDP per capita and life expectancy caused by the pandemic.

Key points

• Key points:
• The results reveal vast differences between countries, both in the overall decline in social welfare and the breakdown of its underlying causes.
• While the decline in welfare is practically non-existent in certain countries, in others, it is equivalent to a decrease in consumption per capita of over 14 percentage points.
• There is great uncertainty about the temporal dynamics of the pandemic and its economic effects, in the same way that the prospect of effective vaccines being available in the short term instills hope that the effect of COVID-19 on life expectancy will be temporary.
• Nevertheless, its effects on consumption per capita, employment and inequality need to be minimized so that social welfare can recover as quickly as possible, especially in those societies where the decline is greatest.

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