Big things were expected from 2020. Hawke’s Bay’s economy was hot to trot and regarded as one of the strongest performing regions across New Zealand.
But, that all came to screaming halt on March 25 when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that businesses and schools across the country would go into lockdown and we would be forced to stay home for at least one month.
This was a huge jolt to the economy and we could already see the catastrophe that was taking place in other countries such as China and Italy.
The global stock markets went into freefall, dropping at levels not experienced since the GFC in 2007–08 and the Great Depression of 1929–33.
For Hawke’s Bay, many wondered whether all the good work that had been done in recent years to get the economy into such a strong position was going to come undone by COVID-19. We knew that hospitality and tourism were going to be the earliest COVID-19 casualties but what would be next?
First published by The Profit – read the full article here.