The Impact of COVID-19 on The Economy
There is no doubt that COVID-19 had affected our lives in ways we could never have imagined. Outside of the catastrophic healthcare crisis, the global impact has been so drastic that the phrase “economic crisis” went back to its status as a household term. As the rumors of the inevitable “depression” echo within society, we find ourselves uncertain of just how severe the impact of the pandemic will be on our economy.
Given this premise, we decided to explore the industries which we believed would have been impacted the most, be it positively or negatively.
Another term that unexpectedly stormed into every household was “Zoom”. Needless to say, that as universities and companies transitioned to being conducted remotely, the platforms that were needed to facilitate such work experienced a sudden increase in usage. Among all of them, Zoom prevailed.
As you can see on the scatterplot below, the spread of the pandemic was accompanied by the zoom stock prices skyrocketing from $75 to $169, more than double the price in a matter of 4 months.
However, Zoom was not the only one to experience such rapid growth. As more countries issued the stay-at-home order, people found themselves searching for some form of entertainment within the four walls of their homes. Netflix became one of the go-to options for entertainment, which can be seen in the rapid rise of its stock price. Netflix stock prices have never been nearly as high as they have grown to be in the past four months.
Surely, watching Chef’s Table on Netflix cannot possibly substitute eating traditional food in Bali while staring at the waves of the ocean. However, while the cancellation of your Bali trip was disappointing for you, it was devastating for the travel industry.
Booking Holdings Inc, in particular, experienced one of the largest drops in their stock prices. The company that oversees Bookings.com, Kayak, and other well-known online travel service platforms suffered a great fall in their stock prices due to the global travel policy changes and general aversion to travel.
As can be seen in the scatterplot below, the stock prices for Booking Holdings plummeted at the very early stage of the pandemic, making the travel industry one of the first economic victims of the epidemic.
As we can see, the economic impact has varied from industry to industry, and this is the unfair truth that comes with any emergency situation. This shows us that besides saving lives, following the guidelines allows the governments to have the virus under control and slowly re-open businesses, which then mitigates the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy. So listen to your government when they tell you to stay home and take some time to invest in Zoom and Netflix stocks.
