Our thoughts are with the many among them who have paid the ultimate price, with all the victims of this tragedy and with their families. In Italy as in the rest of the world, the economic policy response was aimed first and foremost at managing the health crisis and at slowing the spread of the virus, including through drastic lockdown measures.
Extraordinary budgetary provisions have brought relief to households and firms whose jobs, livelihoods, and income have all been affected. If not curbed by these measures, and by grantedly massive and timely monetary policy interventions, such a profound crisis would have had even more deleterious effects on the productive sector and on society as a whole.