New Zealand One of World’s Most Resilient Economies

Experts have already begun assessing how a recovery might look once the COVID-19 virus is contained, and which countries stand to bounce back best. According to the 2019 Global Resilience Index, New Zealand sits at number 12. Lindsey Galloway reports on the findings for the BBC.

“[The Index] ranks the resiliency of the business environment across 130 countries, based on factors like political stability, corporate governance, risk environment and supply chain logistics and transparency,” Galloway writes. “Pairing these rankings with their country’s initial response to the virus, we identified the nations across the globe that have a high likelihood of maintaining stability and resilience through the crisis.

“We talked to residents and experts in these places to understand how they’re coping now and what they might look forward to in the hopefully near-term future.

“New Zealand scores especially high in corporate governance and its supply chain. The country has also been able to move quickly to contain the spread of the virus by shutting borders to international travellers on 19 March and enacting a non-essential-business lockdown on 25 March.

“‘As an island nation, it is easier to control our borders, the main source of infections. So the effective border closure makes sense,’ said Auckland resident Shamubeel Eaqub, economist at consultancy Sense Partners. ‘Compared to other countries, the response in New Zealand has been bold and decisive.’ The measures are paying off, as some epidemiologists see it as having potential to be one of few ‘normal’ nations left, according to a Guardian report, eliminating all cases if measures remain strong for the coming weeks.

“Overall, the country is well-placed for a stable recovery, with low levels of government debt and the ability to enact quantitative easing to keep interest rates low. ‘We have fewer constraints to both blunt the impact of dealing with [the] pandemic and supercharge the recovery,’ Eaqub said. ‘Most importantly, New Zealand remains a relatively high-trust country. This will be a strong foundation for recovery from the biggest health and economic shock in generations.’”

Norway tops the list, followed by Denmark and Switzerland.

Original article by Lindsey Galloway, BBC, April 6, 2020.

Photo by Dan Freeman.