In particular, it introduced: (i) the € billion SURE programme, a common fiscal instrument at the European level to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency; (ii) a € billion European Guarantee Fund managed by the European Investment Bank, aimed at mobilising additional financing of up to € billion for the private sector; and (iii) the European Stability Mechanism’s credit line of up to € billion, aimed at supporting euro area governments’ pandemic-related spending on direct and indirect healthcare, and cure and prevention-related costs stemming from the COVID-19 crisis.
Indeed, there is new-found sympathy for these tools in the international community, at least when they’re applied in a temporary and targeted manner as a form of international macro-prudential stabilization. It is important, however, that nothing that is done as a possible short-term palliative be allowed to interrupt the rebalancing and necessary process of normalization that is underway in the global economy.