Major economies shrink sharply in June quarter

France, Italy, Spain and the US are among the economies battered by the Covid-19 outbreak, which has shown little signs of abating even as countries around the world have eased restrictions. Quarterly data of the four countries saw sharp contractions in t

PARIS/WASHINGTON: France, Italy, Spain and the US this week reported precipitous contractions for their coronavirus-battered economies, with the pandemic wiping out years of growth in a matter of weeks as lockdowns closed shops, factories and restaurants and could mark the beginning of a period of recession.

Quarterly GDP data for European countries, released on Friday, comes exactly seven months after the world first heard about the spread of a mysterious virus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The pathogen has since infected more than 17.5 million people and killed 679,354 world over.

France’s economy contracted by 13.8% in the April-june quarter, mirroring similar devastation in Spain (18.5%) and Italy (12.4%). Europe as a whole saw GDP fall by 12.1% in the Eurozone and 11.9% across the bloc.

The effect of Covid-19 on the US economy was even more marked than in Europe, as it posted a second-quarter loss of 9.5% compared with the same period a year ago, the worst figure

Source: Eurostat/us government data "GDP figures released today confirmed the devastating economic impact of the pandemic... figures all showed historic contractions in output but that the pandemic has caused such massive economic damage is not a surprise."

- Rosie Colthorpe, analyst, Oxford Economics

on record. If that trajectory carried through the entire year, its economy would collapse by nearly a third (32.9%), government data released on Thursday showed.

“It was a grim day at the office for the global economy... as the

extent of the Covid-19 damage was laid bare,” news agency AFP quoted PVM analyst Stephen Brennock as saying.

“Europe’s biggest economy shrunk by... the biggest fall since 1970 and wiped out nearly a dec