Covid-19 Economic Turbulence and Governments Stimulus Package: A Quest for Survival as Global Recession Looms in the 1st Quarter of 2020

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the essential role various governments are playing to stimulate their economy within the framework of COVID-19 in the 1^st Quarter of 2020 with more than a million people in over 205 countries and 2 international conveyance infected as at April 2020. The paper centers around governments' expenditure to drive containment and encourage employee retention as economies head towards recession due to border closure and movement control order. Thus main reason for government tax cuts and other fiscal measures to reduce the likelihood of recession as millions of people lose their jobs weekly. The paper provided a background information on government economic Stimulus packages and an in-depth analysis of the intervention implemented by early hit COVID-19 countries with huge packages like Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada and Indonesia. Qualitative research approach was adopted as the method to carry out this research due to domestic movement control and international border closures in most countries (2.6 billion people/ one- third of global population people living under lockdown). The finding reveals that monetary and fiscal measures play a significant role in mitigating the health, economic and social impact of COVID-19 pandemic as the virus briskly spreads.  In conclusion, the researchers came up with recommendations and further stressed the need to curtail the spread of coronavirus by supporting less income households and businesses to retain their employees as measures to lessen the effect of recession and policies to boost economic recovery are coordinated.