Covid’s unequal effect on companies

IN ITS LATEST Economic Outlook, the OECD argues that economies are likely to diverge, as some (America and China) recover from the pandemic faster than others (many poor countries). Covid-19 has also struck different sectors differently: tech and pharmaceutical firms prospered; transport and energy firms suffered. Despite such disparities governments’ policies successfully put the economy into “hibernation”: in many places there were fewer bankruptcies in the final quarter of 2020 than in 2019. The trickiness now is in judging when activity is strong enough for support to be withdrawn.