The Ability of Selected European Countries to Face the Impending Economic Crisis Caused by COVID-19 in the Context of the Global Economic Crisis of 2008

摘要

This paper is devoted to the ability of selected European countries to face the potentialeconomic crisis caused by COVID-19. Just as other pandemics in the past (e.g., SARS, Spanishinfluenza, etc.) have had negative economic effects on countries, the current COVID-19 pandemic iscausing the beginning of another economic crisis where countries need to take measures to mitigatethe economic effects. In our analysis, we focus on the impact of selected indicators on the GDP ofEuropean countries using a linear panel regression to identify significant indicators to setappropriate policies to eliminate potential negative consequences on economic growth due to thecurrent recession. The European countries are divided into four groups according to the measuresthey took in the fiscal consolidation of the last economic crisis of 2008. In the analysis, we observedhow the economic crisis influences GDP, country indebtedness, deficit, tax collection, interest rates,and the consumer confidence index. Our findings include that corporate income tax recorded thebiggest decline among other tax collections. The interest rate grew in the group of countries most atrisk from the economic crisis, while the interest rate fell in the group of countries that seemed to besafe for investors. The consumer confidence index can be considered interesting, as it fell sharply inthe group of countries affected only minimally by the crisis (Switzerland, Finland).