Economic activity in France is 12% Lower Due to Isolation Measures

The French central bank said that economic activity in the country is witnessing a 12% decline this month from its normal level after the country entered into general isolation measures to limit the spread of the Corona virus for the second time this year.

The government imposed a new lockdown on October 30 to curb the rise in new cases of the virus, but the restrictions are less stringent than the first time to curb their impact on the euro zone’s second-largest economy.

The French central bank said economic activity is expected to drop 12% from normal levels as a result, which is worse than the 4% decline in October but much better than the 31% loss it witnessed in April during one of Europe’s most stringent lockdown measures.

“Before the second wave, we thought that we would witness a recession a little less than 9%, but now we expect it to be between 9% and 10% for the whole of 2020,” central bank governor Francois Villorroix de Gallo said.

It is expected that the services that require direct interaction with the customers most affected will decline by 40% in the wholesale and retail sectors, transportation, hotels and restaurants.