The Finances of European Households Throughout the Pandemic

In 2020, household incomes were severely hit by the lockdowns imposed across the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the last available wave of the euro-area harmonized Household Finance and Consumption Survey for 2016, this chapter documents European households’ financial resilience to this shock, based on pre-shock balance sheets, potential exposure to COVID-19, and in the absence of government interventions. The results highlight that there are large and similar shares of the population across European countries that are likely to suffer from the economic fallout of containment measures – albeit through different channels.