FISCAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION IN THE RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19: FROM EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Abstract

This article documents and discusses both fiscal and social protection responses to the Covid-19 pandemic triple crisis (health, economic and social). Despite similarities across fiscal and social protection instruments used by countries, their scale was quite uneven for countries with different income levels. If, on the one hand, fiscal measures were able to reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic on growth and social protection measures were able to minimize the loss of income and preserve jobs, on the other hand, the unequal progress with vaccination and differences in the impact of the pandemic between countries and sectors suggest the need to maintain anti-cyclical policies that are capable of protecting the most affected sectors and workers and, with the control of the pandemic, stimulating the resumption of growth on a more inclusive and sustainable basis.

Keywords

• fiscal policy
• social protection
• covid-19