These types of measures immediately lead to deterioration of the budget balance without any direct compensation later.

Immediate fiscal impulse: additional government spending (such as medical resources, keeping people employed, subsidising SMEs, public investment) and foregone revenues (such as the cancellation of certain taxes and social security contributions).

We group discretionary fiscal measures into three categories: We consider only discretionary fiscal measures, while budget balances will deteriorate because of the likely severe economic downturn, leading to lower tax revenues and higher unemployment benefit payments. Other measures under discussion will be added to our comparison when adopted. In this dataset we summarise and compare the discretionary fiscal responses of EU countries, the United Kingdom and the United States. European state aid rules and fiscal rules have been suspended. Governments throughout the European Union have started to announce and implement various fiscal measures to contain the economic fallout. In the euro area, the European Central Bank has reacted with strong monetary policy and supervisory measures announced on 12 and 18 March 2020.

The resulting job losses and bankruptcies are likely to create major economic strains for millions in Europe and worldwide. The various lock-down measures in response to coronavirus have halted economic activity in certain sectors and harshly disrupted others. By Julia Anderson, Enrico Bergamini, Sybrand Brekelmans, AliГ©nor Cameron, Zsolt Darvas, Marta DomГnguez JГmГ©nez, Klaas Lenaerts, Catarina MidГµes

Kingdom under fire 2 shutdown