The article examines the role of phrasal verbs in prama-semantic organisation of publicistic discourse. The relevance of this research is explained by the growing interest of linguists in the problems of using phrasal verbs in different types of discourse, as well as the poorly studied issue of phrasal verbs at the junction of economic and publicistic discourse and their pragmatic potential. The objective of he work is to demonstrate the connection between the language and the currect economic realia which constitutes the flexible nature of pragma-semantic system of discourse. The research relies on functional-pragmatic method and component analysis. The method of continuous sampling (articles on the topic of the impact of coronavirus on the economy of different countries) was used to select the material. On the basis of materials taken from English-language newspapers on the topic of the coronavirus impact on the economy of European countries the semantic classification of phrasal verbs was carried out, the results of which shown that the most frequent semes are "slowing down", "improvement", "novelty", "measures / actions", "refusal". The authors conclude that the semantic classification forms the basis of communicative strategies for creating an image of various entities or people, strategies for forming a public opinion, and strategies for uniting the society. In the pragmatic system of publicistic discourse phrasal verbs are particular speech means involved in the implementation of the general communicative strategies. They are indicative of national and cultural self-identitication, the striving for economic growth and social unity in crisis conditions.