The economic and fiscal impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey and around the world

Humanity has a long history of struggle against pandemics. Covid-19 is the most recent example of such kind of pandemics. Since its first outbreak appeared in China on December 31, 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has spread rapidly across almost all over the globe within a few months. The Covid-19 has been a type of pandemic which requires compliance with social distancing rules, thereby it has caused both demand-side and supply-side slowdown in economic activities. It is estimated that as a result of the pandemics there will be a very sharp economic shrinkage, an increase in unemployment to the highest levels in the history and a significant decrease in global trade. Governments and international organizations have adopted various measures and incentive packages in order to overcome this problem. These packages mainly include monetary and fiscal tools; however, they have the risk of yielding an increase in government debts thus disrupting public fiscal equilibrium. This chapter aims to examine the economic and fiscal impacts of the pandemic and to examine practices both in Turkey and around the world accordingly.