2020: The year the global economy finally fell off a cliff

Thanks to coronavirus, the world experienced the biggest collapse in economic activity since the Great Depression. Ben Chu looks at the possibility of a recovery this year, here at home and globally

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange: this image came to symbolise the hunger, poverty and hopelessness endured by so many Americans during the Great Depression   (Getty)

Economic pundits, as readers might have noticed, tend to talk about “cliff edges” a lot. Usually it’s for dramatic effect – an attempt to inject some life into what can be, at times, a dry subject. But in 2020 the cliche was true. This really was the year the global economy went over the edge of a cliff.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we experienced the biggest collapse in economic activity across the planet seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s – a historical period resonant with social catastrophe and political breakdown.

As a large proportion of the planet’s population stopped working, travelling, socialising, going on holiday, and having fun – either because they were forbidden from doing so or because they were afraid of infection – international GDP is estimated to have declined by around 4.5 per cent.