Eurozone Enters Deepest-Ever Recession as Economy Shrinks 12.1 Percent
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The eurozone has entered the deepest recession in its history as its economy shrank by 12.1 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
Economists had forecast widely differing falls in GDP of between 8 per cent and 18.5 per cent.
The fall comes after a 3.8 per cent fall in output during January to March as the impact of coronavirus began to be felt across Europe, Independent reported.
France and Spain both reported precipitous and worsening contractions on Friday for their coronavirus-battered economies, with the Spanish economy shrinking by 18.5 per cent and the French economy retreating by nearly 14 per cent in the second quarter when both countries were in lockdown.
The Spanish contraction was by far the sharpest slump since the country's national statistics agency began collecting data. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was meeting later Friday with the leaders of Spain's regions to discuss how to rebuild the economy and where to deploy billions of euros in European Union aid for recovery.
Spain in mid-March went into a more than three-month lockdown, bringing much economic activity to a halt, as Covid-19 cases and deaths surged. The lockdown ended 21 June.
In France, the startling plunge of 13.8 per cent in April-June from the previous three-month period also starkly illustrated the punishing economic cost of its two-month lockdown. It was the third consecutive quarter of economic contraction in France's worsening recession. The pain has been so damaging to jobs and industries that the government is talking down the possibility of another nationwide lockdown as infections tick upward again.
Europe's deepening problems come as the US reported a staggering 32.9 per cent drop in output - its worst quarter since the Second World War.
