According to Rob Vos, Will Martin, and David Laborde, the economic impacts of the present pandemic will be different from previous ones, including SARS, avian influenza, and MERS, which caused direct damage to livestock sectors, leading to food shortages and food price hikes in affected areas. No major food shortages have emerged thus far because of COVID-19. However, the pandemic is having significant economic impacts. The implications of such a slowdown for poverty and food insecurity depend on the assumptions made about the duration of the pandemic and transmission mechanisms. The authors run scenarios with IFPRI’s global general equilibrium model to calculate calculate the poverty impacts for households across the developing world. A 1 percent reduction in global economic growth would translate into an increase in the global extreme poverty rate of 1.7%- 3%, with different regions experiencing varied impacts.
Read a previous article by the authors where they explain that while the pandemic may not have major direct impacts on the supply of staple foods, there is still critical need for fiscal stimuli, social protection, and healthcare.