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Colm McCarthy Opinion We've got one crisis - but it need not spread to economy

Coronavirus is a public health crisis with an economic crisis attached, rather than an economic downturn of the conventional type. It requires an unconventional economic policy response, not the simple demand boost that textbook macroeconomics prescribes. Budgets will go sharply into deficit, including in Ireland and in other heavily indebted countries, and so they should. In the Eurozone this will require a coherent response which recognises the unique character of the downturn already under way, especially from the European Central Bank.