PARIS (Reuters) – France will likely see its worst economic downturn since World War Two, far more than the 2.2 percent contraction it experienced in 2009 after the global financial crisis, France’s finance minister said on Monday.
“Perhaps we have exceeded the -2.2 percent rate recorded in 2009,” Minister Bruno Lemerre told the Senate during a teleconference. “This shows the scale of the economic shock we are facing.”
The government estimate last month in an emergency budget update that the economy will shrink 1 percent this year, but has since indicated that it will have to review that figure.