Covid

Except for China, all G20 countries (a group of the world's largest economies) experienced a drop in GDP in the second quarter of this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to a comparison released on Monday (14) by the OECD, it was the biggest drop in the group's history. On average, the G20 economy shrank 6.9% compared to the first quarter of this year and 9.1% compared to the second quarter last year. The second quarter reduction was much greater than that recorded in the first quarter of this year, 3.5% over the previous quarter and 1.7% compared to the first quarter of 2019. The record fall coincides with the time of the highest number of deaths from coronavirus in most G20 countries, in April this year. Most of them adopted confinement during almost the entire quarter. The fall of 6.9% in a one quarter is also four times the reduction of 1.6% during the financial crisis in the first quarter of 2009. China grew 11.5% in the second quarter, recovering from -10% in the first quarter. Discounting the Asian country, the other 17 economies shrank an average of 11.8% (there are no figures available for Argentina and Saudi Arabia). The countries most affected were India (-25.2%) and the United Kingdom (-20.4%). GDP also fell dramatically in Mexico (-17.1%), South Africa (-16.4%), France (-13.8%) and Italy (-12.8%).