Short-term impact of COVID-19 in the clusters of EU market economies

Before the coronavirus epidemic and the related lockdowns, the EU countries represented various image of social, fiscal and external economic characteristics which is the base of the cluster analysis. The puzzle is whether the pre-crisis preparedness results in different or similar damages during the economic crisis. Specific evolution patterns of production, labour market, mobility and risk premium are explored as crisis indicators. The analysis concludes that a clear link can be established merely between the state of public finances and the indicator of financial risk in the examination of the behaviour of clusters. For all clusters, it is confirmed that the decline in mobility was mostly accompanied by a slowdown in industrial production, but not by unemployment.