The Firm-Level Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The economic impact of the second wave of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Myanmar has been significantly more severe on businesses than the first wave, according to the World Bank’s firm-level survey. The latest survey, the fourth in a series of eight surveys planned, was administered between September 11, 2020 and October 1, 2020, and covered a nationally representative sample of five hundred firms. The fourth round of the survey overlaps with the beginning of the second-wave of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and re-introduction of stay-at-home orders that started initially in Rakhine in late August and then in Yangon in early September. This note provides a snapshot of how the firms' outcomes and response to the pandemic have changed between the months of September and October 2020.