£12bn hit to France from third-wave lockdown

FRANCE is facing a £12.8bn hit to its economy after President Macron plunged the nation into its third lockdown, analysts have warned. The country is struggling to cope with a rapid rise in more contagious variants of Covid-19, intensified by a disappointing vaccine rollout. Experts at investment bank Berenberg think the latest restrictions, which are due to last four weeks, will wipe around 7pc off France’s output while they are in place. This would cost France’s €2.3 trillion economy between €10bn and €15bn in lost growth.

Christopher Dembik, an economist at Berenberg, said: ‘Macron ( pictured) had long shied away from a stricter lockdown in order to prevent a new decline in economic activity. But the surging infections numbers left him little choice in the end. Even with a strong rebound in activity from early May onwards, the tighter April lockdown will weigh heavily on the second-quarter average for GDP.’

France’s latest lockdown will see non-essential shops close, travel within the country will be limited, and the 7pm to 6am curfew will continue. Unlike the nation’s October-November lockdown last year, schools will also close for at least three weeks.

Dembik added: ‘Mass vaccination is the only way to bring economic recovery to France.’

After a slow start, vaccinations have been picking up. The country was averaging 150,000 jabs per day in late February – that had risen to 343,000 on March 30.