COVID-19 brings economic uncertainty, cautious optimism for recovery

Businesses face short-term challenges, but longer term opportunities resulting from COVID-19, according to SFU Beedie professor Andrey Pavlov

Business shutdowns, reduced services, and daily announcements of more money allocated towards the issue have many concerned about the economic impacts of COVID-19. Despite this, Beedie School of Business professor Andrey Pavlov maintains cautious optimism.

“I think the long-term picture is good,” says Pavlov. “We have fantastic technological advancements that were generating very high rates of growth before the virus, and there is no reason to believe this will change.”

Businesses beginning to move towards online and remote services will help maintain the flow of capital and help cushion economic blows. The pandemic may also push companies to develop and adapt further to new technologies, speeding up the eventual economic recovery.

Pavlov says with more companies and organizations working from home, we will likely see a technological boom.

And while stock market plunges in the pandemic’s early stages indicated a looming economic downturn, Pavlov says Pavlov says these plunges resulted from people reacting to new information and to uncertainty. In fact, he says, this is natural and indicates an active market.

“We’re going to get out of this, and this will be an opportunity to develop a portfolio of stocks and bonds that serves your needs.”

Read the full story at SFU News.