\n<\/p>\n
Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics called the European news a blizzard of depressing economic data that “confirms that the eurozone economy was in free-fall”.<\/p>\n
In the case of France, the 5.8% decline in gross domestic product (GDP) was the largest the quarterly series has recorded since it began in 1949.<\/p>\n
Two other large economies have published first estimates: Spain saw a contraction of 5.1% while Italy’s economy shrank by 4.7%. <\/p>\n
The figure for the eurozone as a whole was more moderate, but is still by any standards severe especially for a contraction over just three months.<\/p>\n
So far most individual European countries have not published national estimates. That applies to the largest of them, Germany.<\/p>\n
But new figures for the German labour market are beginning to show the impact of the pandemic, with the number of people out of work rising by 373,000 in April. <\/p>\n
However, the full impact is damped by the country’s system of financial help to people put onto shorter working hours, known as Kurzarbeit. <\/p>\n
Claus Vistesen of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the news on the Geman labour market was “bad, but it would have been disastrous without Kurzarbeit”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n