(4)COVID-19 has been characterised by the World Health Organization as a pandemic and is the cause of a collective public health emergency which is unprecedented in recent history. It has produced an extreme economic shock that requires an ambitious, coordinated and urgent reaction on all policy fronts to support businesses and workers at risk. As a consequence of the pandemic, economic activity across the euro area is declining and will inevitably suffer a considerable contraction, especially as more countries are faced with the need to intensify containment measures. These measures place acute strains on the cash-flows of businesses and workers and put the survival of businesses and jobs at risk. It is also clear that this situation hampers the transmission of the monetary policy impulses and adds severe downside risks to the relevant inflation outlook. Against this background, the PEPP is a measure which is proportionate to counter the serious risks to price stability, the monetary policy transmission mechanism and the economic outlook in the euro area, which are posed by the outbreak and escalating diffusion of COVID-19. The Governing Council will terminate PEPP net asset purchases once it considers that the COVID-19 crisis phase is over, but in any event not before the end of 2020.