Global economic activity has begun to recover since mid-May as various measures put in place to contain the spread of the pandemic were eased. The recovery has been substantial – but it remains uneven, uncertain and incomplete.
The unevenness of the recovery partly reflects the timing of the spread of the pandemic across the globe and the measures that were put in place to contain it. For example, the economic contraction in China was concentrated in the first quarter of this year, and the Chinese economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter, just as other economies were entering a downturn.