Social media analysis to forecast economic impact of COVID-19: Study

London:  Researchers have developed a 'real time' method that uses social media to reliably forecast the financial impact of natural disasters, an advance that may help businesses recover form the current global health crisis.

According to the researchers, including those from the University of Bristol in the UK, social media could be used to chart the economic impact and recovery of businesses in countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In their study, published in Nature Communications, they said traditional economic recovery estimates, such as surveys and interviews, are usually costly, time-consuming and do not scale-up well.

However, the scientists were able to accurately estimate the downtime and recovery of small businesses in countries affected by three different natural hazards using aggregated.