THE Covid-19 pandemic has made an economic impact with a magnitude of unprecedented proportions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently predicted that the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic would be “far graver than the Great Recession.”

A poll conducted by the World Bank, National Economic and Development Authority and Department of Finance of 74,301 businesses in July — released on October 6 — showed that 45 percent of them remained open and only 5 percent operated at full capacity. That was the time when joblessness hit a record 45.5 percent.