The economic recession caused by the coronavirus will be worse this year in the European Union than previously predicted, says the European Commission in an updated forecast.
This includes data from the second quarter for most EU countries. The economy of the European Union will shrink by 8.3 percent this year, a significant drop compared to the earlier forecast of 7.4 percent. In the 19 EU countries that share the common euro currency, the contraction will be 8.7 percent.
This puts the economic health of the richest bloc of countries in the world at stake, an important trading partner of the United States and the home of one of the main currencies in global trade and savings, the euro.
The data are particularly grim for the southern EU countries, some of which were especially hard hit by the coronavirus. Italy, the third largest economy in the EU, is considered the hardest hit and will shrink by 11.2 percent.
Spain, the fourth largest economy, is facing a recession of 10.9 percent; France, the second largest economy after Germany, will shrink by 10.6 percent.
But some observers noted that parts of the bloc were already showing signs of recovery. ‘Early data for May and June suggest that the worst may be over,’ the report said. "The recovery is expected to gain momentum in the second half of the year, although it will be incomplete and uneven across member states."
The European Union government leaders are expected to meet next week for the first time in months to try to reach a compromise on a corona recovery fund of 750 billion euros.