At present, two issues are at the center of healthcare attention: virus mutations and the progress of the vaccination campaign. The former is a cause for concern, while the latter may help reduce uncertainty. Clearly, the scales are tipping toward vaccines and the hope that we can finally overcome the health crisis.
Looking ahead to a post-COVID future, the pandemic has inflicted significant short-term economic damage and scars that will be difficult to heal. The International Monetary Fund believes that the current optimism, which it shares, is overshadowed by the difficulties that may arise in managing the recovery. It specifically refers to three issues: 1. divergences in economic growth rates worldwide; 2. the priority of reforms and adjustments that drive and make the initial recovery more sustainable; 3. the need to establish a strategy for returning to normalcy regarding the exceptional policies applied to date. The supranational institution sets the goal for everyone that the recovery be strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive.
Maintaining supportive monetary policies remains necessary to assist households and businesses, under the premise that removing them would pose greater social and economic costs than the potential benefits that could be generated in the medium term. However, it is precisely this adjustment of timelines that leads to proposing a combination of support measures with others focused on beginning to reduce existing vulnerabilities and driving economic transformation, so that the recovery is protected and made more robust.
To manage the desired return to normalcy, international coordination and cooperation between economic agents remain necessary. Banks maintain their commitment to placing all their financial and human resources at the disposal of their clients and to collaborating with authorities on the decisions they adopt.
José Luis Martínez Campuzano, spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association
