Need for real-time data in designing stimulus packages

The Covid-19 outbreak is likely to become the defining crisis of our generation. As the scale of the pandemic continues to grow at a level unprecedented in recent times, governments have reacted in similarly unprecedented fashion by closing borders, shuttering businesses, and locking down entire regions.

Governments around the world are now being forced to make excruciatingly difficult decisions – between public health and public finances, between flattening the epidemic curve and deepening the economic recession curve, and, ultimately, between saving lives and saving livelihoods.