France enters recession. The French gross domestic product dropped by about 6% in the first quarter of 2020, weighed down by the Covid-19 epidemic, according to an estimate by the Bank of France published this Wednesday.
As GDP had already declined by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Insee, France is therefore technically entering a recession.
Activity was particularly about one third (-32%) below normal in the last two weeks of March, according to the Bank of France’s assessment, based on a survey conducted among 8,500 companies.
“One has to go back to the second quarter of 1968, marked by the events of May, to find a quarterly decline in activity of the same magnitude,” although still less, it details in its economic report. GDP had then fallen by 5.3%.
Following Insee’s estimates, the French central bank estimates that each fortnight of lockdown results in a 1.5% annual drop in GDP.
The analysis from the Bank of France confirms that most economic sectors have experienced strong and abrupt losses of activity, with the most affected being construction, commerce, transportation, accommodation, and food service.
