The Consequences of COVID-19 on Livelihoods in Suriname: Evidence from a Telephone Survey

A nationally representative telephone survey on the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in Suriname was conducted during the month of August in 2020. This paper presents a summary of the main findings of that survey and a review of the pandemic as of mid-April 2021. We found that household income was affected through employment losses, business closures and reduction of remittances. With data from the 2016/17 Suriname Survey of Living Conditions (SSLC) an additional level of analysis found that, although the shock to household income was widespread, pre-existing inequalities across income and gender groups were exacerbated.