The long and winding road to recovery has begun

Dear readers,

There are positive signs emerging from this pandemic.

On Sunday, South Korea slightly relaxed lockdown guidelines, allowing high-risk facilities such as churches to reopen, while sports matches such as soccer can resume without an audience. Social distancing measures will be extended for another 16 days even as Covid-19 infections in the country subside.

Earlier this month, China lifted the lockdown inWuhan, the city where the viral disease began. In Europe, Germany allowed businesses to reopen, while Spain has recorded fewer deaths.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Despite these encouraging trends, it will take some time for the economy and businesses to recover from the recession triggered by this global crisis. China recorded its first economic contraction in at least three decades in the first quarter as the novel coronavirus shut down factories and shopping malls and left thousands jobless.

With China in the doldrums, it will be an uphill battle to revive the global economy despite the stimulus measures that governments are doling out.

“The global economy is still under great pressure at the moment,” says Bernard Aw, Singapore-based principal economist at IHS Markit. “With some countries extending their anti-virus measures, global demand is expected to be dampened further.”

Consumer demand will remain tepid amid rising retrenchments and the specter of further layoffs in the horizon. Hundreds were laid off last week across Southeast Asia’s online lending industry. At the same time, these startups have turned cautious with lending activities amid concerns that consumers and businesses won’t be able to repay loans as the economy worsens.

Still, it’s not all bad news. For instance, social commerce in Indonesia is gaining momentum, with startups seeing strong demand as most people stay at home and buy their daily necessities online. Businesses are also becoming creative as they adapt and cope with this crisis.

Here’s the rest of our premium content from last week:

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• Unicorns face a reckoning after doling out generous salaries in boom time
• Commentary: Should Masayoshi Son step away from SoftBank Group?

Rising startups

• Meet the 100 top-funded startups and tech companies in China
• 50 rising startups in China
• Fintech unicorn Airwallex nets $160m to expand worldwide
• Indonesian logistics startup Kargo bags $31m, sets up Covid-19 relief fund

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• A visual timeline of TikTok’s rise
• TIA Monthly Report: Strong March masks weakness in the early funding stages

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I’ll speak to you again next week.

Let’s all stay home, be healthy, and keep safe!

Cheers,

Jonathan
Editor-in-Chief