In March 2020, the world’s major central banks found themselves confronting the most rapid and severe downturn since the Great Depression. Most eurozone governments responded to the novel coronavirus pandemic by imposing lockdowns and putting much economic activity on hold in the hope that this would prevent, or at least slow the spread of, Covid-19 – something that could have led to massive panic in the eurozone’s financial markets, or even a run of failures in its banking system.

The crisis