European economy drops sharply in Q1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-05-01

In their sharpest decline since records began in 1995, the economies of the euro area and the European Union (EU) recorded significant contractions in the first quarter of 2020, registering a 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent decrease year on year.

Eurostat, the bloc's statistical office, said in a preliminary flash estimate on Thursday that economic output contracted by 3.8 percent in the euro area and by 3.5 percent in the EU compared with the previous quarter.

March, the final month of the period covered, saw COVID-19 containment measures widely introduced in Europe. The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.4 percent, up from 7.3 percent in February. The EU unemployment rate was 6.6 percent in March, up from 6.5 percent in February.

Eurostat estimates that 14.14 million people in the EU, of whom 12.16 million are in the euro area, were unemployed as of March 2020. Compared with February 2020, the number increased by 241,000 in the EU and by 197,000 in the euro area.