The Bank of France recalled in a statement that the only quarterly decline in GDP of this magnitude was recorded in the second quarter of 1968, during the social upheavals in May, when the fall was 5.3%.

The drop in GDP in the first quarter of 2020 is directly related to the effects of confinement due to covid-19, which, according to BdF calculations, led to a 32% decrease in the country's economic activity.

This decline in activity is particularly intense in civil construction (-75%), in trade, transportation, accommodation and restaurants (-65%), as well as in industry, excluding the agri-food and energy industries (-48%)

On the other hand, the sectors least affected are agriculture and the agri-food industry (-6%), energy, coal treatment and refining (-15%) and financial and real estate services (-12%).

The Bank of France notes that every fortnight of confinement reduces French annual GDP by about 1.5 percentage points.

According to the latest official data, the total number of deaths in France due to the covid-19 pandemic is 10,328 and almost 110,000 infected.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected around 1.4 million people worldwide, of whom more than 80,000 died.

Of the cases of infection, about 260 thousand are considered cured.

After appearing in China in December, the outbreak spread across the world, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic situation.