Impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the economic development of Ukraine and Latvia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world has created a number of diverse threats to the development of the countries’ economies, including Ukraine and Latvia. An adequate assessment of these threats is very difficult and, moreover, often has a probabilistic character due to their singularity and novelty. The COVID-19 crisis mainly affected the tertiary sector, in particular companies involved in tourism, international passenger transport, accommodation, catering, entertainment, and cultural events, where demand fell sharply, and jobs fell. They were also followed by a contraction in demand in the manufacturing and transport sectors, which were mainly oriented towards external demand and exports. At the same time, there was a shortage of specialists and an increase in employment in areas such as information and communication technology and healthcare. The purpose of the article is to study the state and trends of the impact of COVID-19 on the economic situation in Ukraine and Latvia, in particular, to determine the socio-economic losses incurred by countries due to quarantine. The study identifying the possible economic policies in order to select the most appropriate instruments COVID-19 mitigation, as well as Latvian and Ukrainian economic structure improvement.