French economy facing 11% decline in 2020 due to virus: Minister
FRANCE is likely to suffer an 11 percent decline in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 due to the effect of the coronavirus, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.
“The worst, from the social and economic point of view, is ahead of us,” Le Maire told RTL radio as France entered a second phase of easing strict lockdown restrictions.
Cafes, bars and restaurants are allowed to reopen as of Tuesday morning, though in Paris and northeastern France, where the virus hit hardest, only outdoor seating will be allowed.
The French economy already shrank by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to national statistics agency INSEE.
INSEE last week estimated that economic decline in the second quarter could be a “breathtaking” 20 percent, assuming that in June the economy made up a third of the ground it had already lost.
Unemployment agency Pole Emploi in April announced a record 22.6-percent increase in unemployed people without any activity. The number of persons concerned was up 843,000, largely due to people already on unemployment benefits losing parttime income.
The “shock of the crisis” had been “very violent in France,” Le Maire said. France was one of the worsthit European countries, with nearly 29,000 deaths of Covid-19 patients recorded as of Monday.
“We took very firm and effective measures to protect French people’s health,” Le Maire argued. “But the economy was practically at a standstill for three months, and we will pay the price in economic growth.”