Thanks to its economic structure and health system, Germany is much better positioned to cope with pandemics than many other European countries.
This is the result of a study published by the credit reference agency Creditreform on the economic, health and social consequences of a potential pandemic outbreak on the EU countries and the UK.
Germany came in second behind Luxembourg in this study, among those countries which, thanks to their economic structure, labour market, health care system, population structure and capacity for mobile working, are in principle in the best position to cope with waves of illness such as the corona epidemic. Denmark and Sweden came third and fourth.
What these countries had in common was that the possibilities for mobile working were widespread, that the health systems were of high quality and that the number of precarious and self-employed jobs was very low.
According to the study, countries in southern Europe and on the European periphery are particularly susceptible to pandemics. Italy, Croatia, Malta and Greece performed particularly badly. In Italy - the bottom of the pandemic ranking - the relatively high proportion of the elderly in the population, the problems in the health system, the limited opportunities for mobile work and, above all, the difficult job market make pandemics highly susceptible, according to Creditreform.
The study assessed the countries' fundamental susceptibility to pandemics, not their handling of the corona crisis. For example, despite the current problems in dealing with Covid19, the UK scored quite well in the study and ranked 6th among the economies structurally best prepared against a pandemic.
Find out more by reading the study. Click right here!