France reports a record decline in GDP

The situation related to the coronavirus pandemic led to a record decline in French GDP - by 5.8% in the first quarter of this year, Report says, citing the TASS.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, this decline is the most powerful for the entire period of monitoring of the country's GDP, conducted since 1949.

It significantly exceeded the data for the first quarter of the 2009 crisis, when a decline of 1.6% of GDP was recorded. It also surpasses the lowest before this indicator in 1968, equal to 5.3% of GDP.

According to experts from the Institute of Statistics, each month of quarantine will cost France a loss of 3% of GDP in annual terms. Activating the economy at the end of the epidemic "will take a long time." French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced on April 28 that all or part of the quarantine regime would be lifted in the country starting on May 11.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities announced an outbreak of pneumonia in China's Wuhan, the causative agent of which is a new type of coronavirus officially named COVID-19.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus a pandemic.