This publication is released at a time where the world is carefully moving out of the 'great lockdown' stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, a partial or complete lockdown of the majority of economies across the globe for six weeks or longer. There are reasons to believe that this simultaneous shutdown of economic and social activities has succeeded in pre-empting what could have become a disastrous global health crisis. But the shutdown is likely to have major economic consequences that remain difficult to assess.