Coronavirus pushes world's leading economies into record slumps
Japan announced in mid-May that it was already in recession
PARIS (AFP) - The coronavirus pandemic pushed most of the world’s major economies into unprecedented contractions in the second quarter, except for China which escaped a recession.
Here are second-quarter changes in gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the previous quarter for the world’s top economies. Unless stated otherwise, the figures are from the national statistics institutes.
- Japan -
Japan announced in mid-May that it was already in recession -- two consecutive quarters of contraction -- when first-quarter GDP slid by 0.6 percent after a 1.9 percent drop in the final quarter of 2019.
On Monday the world’s number three economy recorded a further slump of 7.8 percent in the April-June quarter, its worst on record, as the coronavirus deepens the country’s long-running economic woes.
- Britain -
The UK suffered the worst recession in Europe in the first two quarters of the year, also recording the continent’s highest number of coronavirus deaths. GDP fell 20.4 percent in the second quarter after a 2.2 percent drop in the first.
- Germany -
Europe’s top economy was hit less hard by the coronavirus than its neighbours, but still saw its GDP fall by 10.1 percent in the second quarter after a decline of 2 percent in the first.
Germany’s previous record for a quarterly GDP drop was 4.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009, after the financial crisis of 2008.
- France -
The eurozone’s number two economy was in a longer and stricter lockdown than its eastern neighbour, and second-quarter GDP fell more steeply, by 13.8 percent, after a drop of 5.9 percent in the previous three months.
France’s previous all-time worst quarterly blow to output was dealt by a general strike in May 1968.
- Italy -
Italy’s growth was impacted very early on by the coronavirus which hit its richest region, Lombardy, particularly hard. Italian GDP fell by 5.4 percent in the first quarter and then by 12.4 percent in the second.
- Spain -
After a 5.2 percent drop in the first quarter, Spain’s economy contracted a further 18.5 percent in the second, notably because of a 60 percent drop in tourism income and a fall by one-third in exports.
- Eurozone -
The eurozone’s overall GDP plunged 12.1 percent in the three months to June, after 3.6 percent in the first quarter, making the second quarter downturn "by far" the worst since statistics agency Eurostat started compiling growth data for the area in 1995.
- United States -
The United States, the world’s top economy, suffered a 9.5 percent slump in the second quarter following a 1.3 percent drop in the first, according to figures published by the OECD.
The US government also publishes annualised figures (-32.9 percent in the second quarter), a method that is not comparable with most other countries.
- China -
China, the world’s second-largest economy, may have been where the novel coronavirus originated, but thanks to strict lockdown measures it was able to largely halt the spread of the virus and reopen factories, thus avoiding a recession.
In the second quarter its economy rebounded by 11.5 percent, having fallen by 10 percent in the first quarter. Still, growth for this year will be well below the breakneck rates China has seen in recent years.
