The German economy, Europe’s biggest, shrank by slightly less than originally estimated during the second quarter, the country’s official statistics agency said today — though the 9.7 percent drop was still easily the worst on record. The Federal Statistical Office revised the quarter-on-quarter contraction from the 10.1 percent it initially reported at the end of July. Despite the revision, it remained by far the steepest drop in the 50 years that quarterly GDP figures have been recorded — easily beating a 4.7 percent decline in the first quarter of 2009, during the global financial crisis. The German decline was one of the less drastic second-quarter contractions among Europe’s major economies during the wide-ranging coronavirus lockdowns in the spring. France, Italy, Spain and Britain all saw double-digit drops.-AP

Source: The Standard August 25, 2020 10:41 UTC