Digital Growth - Nov 2020
The discount debate By: Amit Vyas and Mark Williams
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OVID-19 has affected businesses the world over and while there is no way to know exactly what the economic damage from the global pandemic will be, there is widespread understanding and agreement among economists that it will have a significantly negative impact on the global economy. According to Statista, leading economics have reduced their 2020 forecasts of global economic growth down from 3.0 percent to 2.4 percent. To give some perspective on this number, the global GDP was estimated at around 86.6 trillion US dollars in 2019, and this means that just a slight drop of 0.4 percent amounts to almost 3.5 trillion US dollars in lost economic output. However, these predictions were made before the COVID-19 pandemic and before the widespread restrictions on social contact the world over. Since COVID-19, global stock markets have suffered significant falls and the Dow Jones reported the largest ever single day fall on March 16 2020. And with all of the statistics above in mind, it is easy to say that for businesses, it is no longer business as usual.
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