Economic Activity In France Was 12 Percent Below Normal In November

Economic Activity In France Was 12 Percent Below Normal In November

Economic activity in France was 12 percent below normal in November, the French central bank said on Monday. The reason is the second lockdown. The government imposed new restrictions to slow the spread of the new coronavirus on October 30. The measures are slightly less stringent than the first lockdown to limit their negative impact on the euro area's second largest economy. The French central bank said the lockdown was likely to cause economic activity to fall by 12 percent from normal. This is more than the four percent reduction in October, but significantly less than the 31 percent drop in April during the first lockdown, which was one of the strictest in Europe. "Before the second wave, we expected a recession of just under nine percent, now we expect -9 percent to -10 percent for the whole of 2020," French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told RTL radio.