The results are poor but despite everything better than those anticipated by INSEE.

The French economy suffered a massive recession in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic, with a drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of 8.3%, according to a first estimate published on Friday January 29 by the Insee.

The Institute for Economic Studies had forecast a plunge in GDP of around 9%.

But the French economy resisted the second confinement better in the fall, with a decline in GDP of 1.3% in the last quarter alone, penalized above all by the fall in household consumption while investment and trade outside have straightened up.

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For its part, the government was forecasting a drop in GDP of 11% in 2020, even if the Minister of the Economy admitted that this was a cautious forecast.

During this second confinement, the loss of activity was "much more moderate than that observed during the first confinement of March-May 2020" and over the last quarter, the GDP "was 5% lower than its level a year earlier" , underlines INSEE.

Year of recession

Consumption has again fallen "sharply" by 5.4% over the period, due to the closures of shops, after a rebound of 18.2% in the previous quarter.

Conversely, investment continued to recover, up 2.4%.

In addition, exports increased more than imports for the second consecutive quarter (+ 4.8% for the former against + 1.3% for the latter), which means that foreign trade contributes positively to the development of the GDP in the last quarter.

After growth of 1.5% in 2019, one of the most important in the euro zone, the year 2020 will be that of a record recession for France since World War II.

The Covid-19 epidemic, by pushing the government to stop or severely restrict economic activity to contain contamination, notably resulted in a drop in household consumption of 7.1% over the whole of the country. 'year.

Investment fell by 9.8%, while exports plunged 16.7% and imports by 11.6%, during a crisis that severely disrupted trade.

With AFP

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