IW Long Reads: Don't look up - should investors be scared of the global coronavirus debt mountain?

Counting the cost of the pandemic - and how to pay it off

clock • 4 min read

Covid-19 support programmes have ballooned global governments' debts, creating unhelpful comparisons to profligate household budgets and a 'TINA environment' for equities: There Is No Alternative. The UK is forecast to borrow £392bn this year to plug the worst effects of the pandemic, the most in real terms since World War II. A throwback from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis has re-emerged - that debt-burdened states are like households where borrowings must be honoured fast on pain of ruin. "The fiscal dynamics of a government and a household are fundamentally different. It's like comparing...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

More on Markets

Market Movers blog: S&P 500 closes higher while Europe flatlines at the open

Market Movers blog: S&P 500 closes higher while Europe flatlines at the open

Latest news and analysis

Investment Week
clock 28 May 2025 • 1 min read
European markets rally as Trump retreats from 50% tariff threat

European markets rally as Trump retreats from 50% tariff threat

DAX up 1.7%

Linus Uhlig
clock 27 May 2025 • 2 min read
City Hive's Bev Shah: The hidden culture risk in private markets

City Hive's Bev Shah: The hidden culture risk in private markets

'Demands a different level of trust'

Bev Shah
clock 22 May 2025 • 4 min read
Trustpilot
Loading page