Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that cities and states should not be shut down again if there is a second wave of the coronavirus, citing the economic damages that would be involved.
“We can’t shut down the economy again,” he said on CNBC.
“You create more damage, not just economic damage. There are other areas — medical problems that get put on hold. The president made the right decision. I think we learned a lot,” Mnuchin said.
A second round of lockdowns to fight a second wave of the coronavirus would inflict deep damage to the global economy that is already suffering a severe recession, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday.
In a gloomy quarterly outlook, the OECD, which represents the world’s biggest economies, forecast a 7.6% contraction of the global economy if a second wave of the virus triggers shutdowns, and a 6% slump if the second wave can be avoided.
The U.S. economy in particular is expected to plummet by 7.3% this year before expanding by 4.3% in 2021. However, if a second wave of the virus occurred, the country’s economy, the world’s largest, would likely drop by 8.4% and grow by only 1.9% next year. The United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and France are expected to see the most significant economic decline this year, according to the OECD, a Paris-based research organization.
