After playing down the virus’s potential impact just a few months ago, insurers have since declared large financial hits and warned of far worse to come. France’s AXA last month estimated that event cancellation claims alone would be in the “mid-triple-digit-million euros” and it was too early to predict the amount for business interruption. Germany’s Allianz said it suffered a 700 million-euro ($794 million) hit from the pandemic in the first quarter.

In India and Singapore where credit sales fell, overdue invoices still surged by 69% and 29% respectively. India’s decline in credit use might even be the result of its dramatic rise in overdues.Andreas Tesch, Chief Market Officer of Atradius, said:

Gurria argued that “presenting the problem as the choice between lives and livelihoods, meaning a choice between health and the economy, is a false dilemma.

If the pandemic is not brought under control, there will be no robust economic recovery.”In case of a second wave of contagions, the OECD forecast that the average unemployment rate across the 37 developed countries that it represents would double this year to 10% and see “little recovery” in 2021. In the more optimistic scenario, the figure would be 9.2%. In poorer countries, the numbers are often higher, and informal workers are especially vulnerable.

“Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation. On average, every day of this year will add $230 million to industry losses. In total that’s a loss of $84.3billion,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, in a statement.