France’s economy collapsed in the first quarter as the spread of the coronavirus, or Covid-19, and the consequent lockdown hurt economic activity, Bank of France said Wednesday.
Gross domestic product shrunk 6 percent in the first quarter of this year, the bank estimated. That is the worst performance since 1945.
The bank had forecast 0.1 percent growth for the first quarter in February.
The bank was forced to revise down its GDP growth estimate due to the containment measures taken in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We have to go back to the second quarter of 1968, marked by the events of May, to find a quarterly drop in activity of the same order of magnitude,” the bank said.
“GDP then fell by -5.3%, before rebounding by + 8.0% in the third quarter of 1968.”
One third of economic activity was hampered in the first quarter amid declines in most sectors, the bank said.
“Each fortnight of confinement is set to reduce the level of annual GDP by almost 1.5 percent,” the BoF added.
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