Renowned investor Warren Buffett has said the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is not over and the consequences have been uneven.
The Berkshire Hathaway CEO told CNBC that small businesses have been disproportionately affected. "The economic impact has been this extremely uneven thing where...many hundreds of thousands or millions of small businesses have been hurt in a terrible way but most of the big companies have overwhelmingly have done fine," Buffett told the news channel.
"It's not over," the 90-year-old investor said. "I mean, in terms of the unpredictability...it's been very unpredictable but it's worked out better than people anticipated for most people and most businesses. And it's just, for no fault of their own, it's just decimated all kinds of people and their hopes."
Charlie Munger, Buffett's business partner and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman, told CNBC that businessed such as auto dealerships saw an increase in profits.
"It didn't create just a return to normal; it created fabulous success they didn't anticipate," Munger said. "The auto dealers are coining money that they wouldn't have had except for the pandemic."
In many countries, including the US, COVID-induced lockdowns have hurt small businesses since their factories and stores were closed for weeks or months.
Buffet also said that the biggest learning from the pandemic is how ill-prepared the world is for such emergency situations.
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