OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said that the Luxembourg economy had rebounded well from the covid pandemic, while the country also suffered relatively low excess mortality and few school closures Luxembourg government screenshot

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said that the Luxembourg economy had rebounded well from the covid pandemic, while the country also suffered relatively low excess mortality and few school closures Luxembourg government screenshot

Luxembourg managed the covid pandemic very well but still needs to learn plenty of lessons if it is to react even better to any similar crisis in the future says a report from the OECD.

The Luxembourg government’s swift creation of a covid task force to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and its transparency in involving parliament in the legislative process of creating new covid laws has been praised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

A detailed 262-page OECD country report, Assessing Responses to the covid-19 Crisis, was presented by the organisation’s Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and authors of the paper on Wednesday morning. Luxembourg was the first country to request an OECD assessment, something that prime minister (DP) and health minister (LSAP) said was important if lessons are to be learned that could help the management of any similar crisis in the future.

Task force role

Cormann, speaking by video link, said that in general Luxembourg had managed the crisis well. The swift creation of the task force played a significant role in helping manage the impact of the pandemic the Belgian-born Australian Secretary-General said. The introduction of partial unemployment schemes and assistance for businesses was also a positive that helped the grand duchy’s economy survive and then rebound from the consequences of the initial lockdown--Cormann cited figures that showed GDP had gained 6.9% in 2021 over its 2020 low.

But he also said that independent workers did not receive support that helped them cushion the blow of the economic downturn, with only 40% of independents affiliated to some sort of mutuality that ensures they still receive some income in cases of illness or other reasons they cannot work.


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General excess mortality rate also compared well to other OECD countries, Cormann said. However, excess deaths in the over 80s and among elderly people who were in long-term residential care was twice that of the OECD average, Francesca Colombo, head of the OECD’s health, employment and social affairs division said. A reform of the way pandemics are handled in elderly residential homes was required, Colombo said.

Managing the crisis was not easy, and it was not the time to play politics…so it is important to have the independent analysis of the OECD.
 Xavier Bettel 

 Xavier Bettel  prime minister

At the other end of the age spectrum, the OECD report indicates that the grand duchy performed well in terms of school closures. In all, primary schools were shut for 48 days and secondary schools for 34 days, which was among the lowest of all OECD countries. There had been no systematic impact on general education, Cormann said, but there were indications that students who had been performing poorly before the pandemic did suffer.

Colombo also pointed out that while the health care system did manage the pandemic quite well, the crisis also highlighted weaknesses in Luxembourg’s health sector--notably the reliance on cross-border workers in hospitals and health care centres. The impact on non-covid treatment, with delays to a plethora of cancer scans and elective surgery, was also not negligible and is something that should be avoided in any future pandemic, Colombo added.

Bettel welcomed the report. “Managing the crisis was not easy and it was not the time to play politics, and say what was good and bad,” the prime minister said. “So it is important to have the independent analysis of the OECD.” The prime minister also said that introducing restrictions to freedoms was something the government had done reluctantly and that there should always be an “exception”.