Navigating Personal Finance during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

The spread of the virus creates significant implications, sending shocks to the world’s economy. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced many businesses to close, leading to an unprecedented disruption in most industry sectors. COVID-19 has required many countries across the globe to implement early quarantine measures as the fundamental disease control tool. The G-Cubed model showed that the low-end pandemic is expected to reduce global GDP around USD 2.4 trillion and a more serious outbreak will reduce the global GDP by over USD 9 trillion, while Envisage model illustrates the impacts of COVID-19 to the economy include macroeconomic, trade, and sectoral output. The six-month moratorium on loan repayments and cash transfers by the government provides Malaysians extra cash on hand to put food on the table, however, as the moratorium ends in September there are concerns on consumers who took the moratorium route. This paper discusses the general impact of COVID-19 (business, economics, and psychology) and the implication to the personal finance.

Keywords: COVID-19, Fiscal Policy, Economic Growth, Financial Adviser, Personal Finance

JEL Classification: E620, E660, O160