France's economy shrunk by 6 percent in the first quarter of the year, its worst performance since 1945, due to slack industrial, service activities and morose financial market caused by the coronavirus pandemic, French central bank BdF said on Wednesday.
BdF had previously estimated a growth of 0.1 percent for the January-March period.
"The impact of the confinement measure on (economic) activity... leads us to strongly revise our estimate of the quarterly change in GDP in the first quarter, at around minus 6 percent," the bank said.
The coronavirus pandemic has badly affected local businesses in tourism and manufacturing. Adding to that, tough restrictions on people's movement had negatively impacted local demand, one of the main growth engines in the country's economic activity.
Struggling to contain the outbreak, the French government had instituted a two-week confinement on March 17. The lockdown was prolonged by 15 days until April 15, and would be likely extended.
The bank said that every two-week confinement would lead to a 1.5 percent loss in the gross domestic product.
Based on the interviews of 8,500 business leaders from March 27 to April 3, a report by BdF showed that French economic activity dropped by 32 percent. Manufacturing, construction and non-financial market services lost about half of their activity compared with normal situations.
Source: Xinhua |
