Name: France sinks deeper into recession as GDP falls 14% in Q2
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France sinks deeper into recession as GDP falls 14% in Q2

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You have permission to edit this article.© 2020 Lee EnterprisesFrance sinks deeper into recession as GDP falls 14% in Q2Share thisPlease subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Already a subscriber?or .Loading&amp;hellp;Sign Up Today and Support Local JournalismEnjoy more articles from Lincoln's Most Trusted Information Source. Subscribers can log in for unlimited digital accessPARIS (AP) — France's economy shrank by nearly 14% in the second quarter, when the country was in coronavirus lockdown. It was the third consecutive quarter of negative growth in a worsening recession, the national statistics agency said Friday.The startling plunge of 13.8% in April-June, compared to the same three-month period in 2019, starkly illustrated the punishing economic cost of the two-month lockdown. The pain was so damaging to jobs and industries that the government is talking down the possibility of another nationwide lockdown as infections tick upward again.France's economy was already slowing, shrinking by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit with full force.Readjusted figured released Friday by Insee, the French statistics agency, showed that the economy shrank by 5.9% in the first quarter of 2020, as floods of COVID-19 patients started to overwhelm hospitals, prompting the lockdown. Insee's earlier estimate was of a 5.3% first-quarter plunge.France is faring worse than Germany, Europe’s largest economy, which on Thursday during the April-June period as its exports and business investment collapsed.In March, the health crisis prompted the French government to introduce what was one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, halting much activity in the second-largest economy of the countries that use the euro currency. In France, COVID-19 has now killed more than 30,000 people and infected more than 186,000.In releasing its morose figures Friday, Insee said the economic low point was in April, when only workers deemed essential were able to leave their homes. Activity started to pick up again from May as authorities began to ease lockdown restrictions, Insee added.Insee's figures showed that the construction industry was among the hardest-hit, as worksites stood idle, with laborers forced to stay home.Locked-down families, many surviving on government handouts and job-preservation schemes, tightened their purse strings: Insee reported an 11% plunge in household spending in April-June, following a drop of 5.8% in the first quarter.Trade was also battered, as global lockdowns grounded flights, closed borders and factories, and threw transport into disarray. French imports, already down by 5.5% in the first quarter, shrank further in the second quarter, down 17.3%.The damage to exports was even more pronounced, down by a whopping 25.5% in the second quarter after retreating by 6.1% in the first quarter.Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.© Copyright 2020 , 926 P Street Lincoln, NE&nbsp;| &nbsp;|Powered by from .{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

You have permission to edit this article.© 2020 Lee EnterprisesFrance sinks deeper into recession as GDP falls 14% in Q2Share thisPlease subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Already a subscriber?or .Loading&amp;hellp;Sign Up Today and Support Local JournalismEnjoy more articles from Lincoln's Most Trusted Information Source. Subscribers can log in for unlimited digital accessPARIS (AP) — France's economy shrank by nearly 14% in the second quarter, when the country was in coronavirus lockdown. It was the third consecutive quarter of negative growth in a worsening recession,...

France sinks deeper into recession as GDP falls 14% in Q2

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