Contributor(s): Dr Eric Parrado Herrera, Dr Victoria Nuguer, Dr Andrew Powell, Professor Andrés Velasco, Brian Wynter | The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is taking a huge toll across the world, and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean are taking aggressive measures to save lives. Within a matter of weeks, the macroeconomic outlook for the region has changed dramatically. Financing costs have risen, commodities fallen, and large losses of GDP now seem unavoidable. However, the self-imposed partial closure of the economy is anything but a normal recession, and typical countercyclical demand management, both fiscal and monetary, is likely to be inconducive. Introduced by LSE Director Dame Minouche Shafik, a panel from the IDB and LSE will discuss the 2020 Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report and its diagnosis of a rapidly changing environment and policy recommendations aimed to bring relief, maintain economic stability, and keep the core of the economy intact. Eric Parrado Herrera is Chief Economist and General Manager of the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) since March 2019. Before joining the IDB, he was a professor of economics and finance at the ESE Business School of the Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile.  Victoria Nuguer is a Senior Researcher in the Inter-American Development Bank’s Research Department. She holds a Ph.D. from École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne in Switzerland and a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina. Andrew Powell (@AndyPowell_IDB)  is the Principal Advisor in the Research Department (RES) at the Inter-American Development Bank. He holds a Ba, MPhil. and DPhil. (PhD) from the University of Oxford, was Lecturer at Queen Mary’s College, London and at the University of Warwick, was Chief Economist of the Central Bank of the Republic of Argentina and Professor at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires.  Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is the Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2017-18 he was a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group. During 2015-16 he co-chaired the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions. In 2013-16 he was a member of the Global Oceans Commission. Brian Wynter is a company director and consultant. A proud graduate of LSE and Columbia University’s SIPA with financial markets experience in the private sector and the IMF’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre, he was the founding CEO of Jamaica’s Financial Services Commission and, most recently, Governor of Jamaica’s central bank. Gareth Jones is Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Centre at LSE. He is Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE and an Associate Member of the International Inequalities Institute.  Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, will introduce the event. Malcolm Geere, Inter-American Development Bank Executive Director for the United Kingdom will also speak at the beginning of the event. The Latin America and Caribbean Centre (@lse_lacc) is the focal point for LSE’s research and public engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, the Centre builds upon the School’s long and important relationship with the region. The Institute of Global Affairs (@LSEIGA) aims to maximise the impact of LSE's leading expertise across the social sciences by shaping inclusive and locally-rooted responses to the most important and pressing global challenges. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.