Is Eurozone accumulating a historic lag toward Asia in the COVID-19 context?

Sapir, J.

The COVID-19 epidemic has shaken the world and affected the global economy. Coming from China, this epidemic has hit different countries in a close succession. Western Europe and the Eurozone were severely hit by the pandemy. The so-called "2nd wave" is creating havoc even in the countries that had quite well managed before - during the 1st wave of Spring 2020. Even with the vaccine, it is quite probable that economic recovery will be postponed to 2022-2023. Would the Eurozone accumulate a historic lag compared to Asia in the pandemy context? Analyses done by the end of September 2020, that is before the 2nd epidemic wave struck Europa, were already showing that the EU and the Eurozone, as some other advanced economies, fared worse in that context. This 2nd wave would quite probably strengthen this lagging.