Eurozone GDP drops 12.1% in record pandemic plunge – Times of Oman

Eurozone GDP drops 12.1% in record pandemic plunge – Times of Oman

August 1, 2020 | 12:34 PM

by DW

Brussels: The eurozone's economy took an unprecedented hit due to coronavirus pandemic, with the bloc's GDP contracting by 12.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, EU officials said in preliminary estimates published on Friday.

Only 19 out of EU's 27 member states use the euro as currency. The hit was slightly milder for European Union as a whole with a contraction of 11.9 per cent.

The pandemic had the largest impact on Spain, the EU's fourth-largest economy, which saw its GDP plunge by 18.5 per cent.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was set to meet leaders of the country's regions later on Friday to discuss rebuilding the economy and distributing EU recovery funds. The latest numbers put Spain in an official recession, as the first quarter of 2020 also saw a 5.2 per cent contraction.

Portugal's GDP slumped 14.1 per cent. France shed 13.8 per cent of its GDP, and Italy saw a decrease of 12.4 per cent.

EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said "all European countries" suffered unprecedented consequences.

Commenting on the EU figures, senior economist at the Frankfurt-based ING bank Bert Colijin warned that the drop "doesn't tell us that much about the general state of