Associated Press
Government relief checks began arriving in Americans’ bank accounts as the economic damage to the U.S. from the coronavirus piled up Wednesday and sluggish sales at reopened stores in Europe and China made it clear that business won’t necessarily bounce right back when the crisis eases.
With lockdowns and other restrictions bringing factories to a shuddering halt, American industrial output shriveled in March, registering its biggest decline since the U.S. demobilized in 1946 at the end of World War II. And retail sales fell by an unprecedented 8.7%, with April expected to be far worse.
The world’s biggest economy began issuing one-time payments this week to tens of millions of people as part of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, with adults receiving up to $1,200 each and $500 per child to help them the rent or cover other bills. The checks will be directly deposited into bank accounts or mailed to households, depending on how they filed their tax returns in the past.
Among those who received a check was Jacqueline Gonzalez, a 32-year-old single mother who was laid off from her job as a bartender at a sports bar and lives with her mom, a schoolteacher, in Miami Lakes, Florida. Gonzalez paid her car insurance and gave her mother $500 for rent. She has signed up for food stamps.
“There is no other form of income for us right now. We have no other choice. We can’t work from home,” she said. “We’re just sitting here. Bills are racking up.”
In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump’s name will be printed on the checks. Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said the checks would not be delayed because of the decision.
Around the world, the economic damage from the effort to “flatten the curve” of infections has mounted alarmingly.
Signifying a huge shift in consumer behavior, grocery store sales in the U.S. jumped nearly 26% as Americans stocked up on food and consumer goods to ride out the crisis, while auto sales plummeted by one-quarter and clothing store sales slid by more than half, the government reported. The category that mostly includes online shopping rose more than 3%.
“With clear signs of panic buying of necessities and the fact that lockdowns were introduced only around the middle of the month means that far worse is to come in April and the second quarter more generally,” said Michael Pearce, an economist at the consulting firm Capital Economics.
U.S. manufacturing output dropped 6.3% last month, led by plunging production at auto factories, which have shut down entirely.
As of last week, some 17 million people in the U.S. had been thrown onto the unemployment rolls because of the crisis.
“Woke up to our Stimulus check in the bank!” Darla Shepherd of Bledsoe in Harlan County, Kentucky, posted on Facebook. “Thank you Mr. President Trump!”
Shepherd, 38, a health worker in the Appalachian coal-mining community, and her husband, Brandon, 44, are both working. But he was laid off from his quarry job the entire month of February, and his wife said in an interview that the payout would help them get caught up on bills.
“We’re your typical American family. We live payday to payday,“ said Shepherd, who has a 9-year-old son. “It’s a blessing. It means a lot.”
