Europe faces recession of “historic proportions”

The European Union is forecast to contract by a record 7.5% this year, according to a new forecast from the European Commission, as the coronavirus batters economies around the world, reports CNN.

In its spring economic forecast, the commission predicts the contraction of "historic proportion" and says the EU will rebound in 2021, with growth of 6% predicted for that year. The forecast says that every EU country will enter recession this year, but the full impact and the strength of the recovery in each member state will “differ markedly.”

“Europe is experiencing an economic shock without precedent since the Great Depression," said Paolo Gentiloni, European commissioner for the economy.

"Both the depth of the recession and the strength of recovery will be uneven, conditioned by the speed at which lockdowns can be lifted, the importance of services like tourism in each economy and by each country's financial resources. Such divergence poses a threat to the single market and the euro area -- yet it can be mitigated through decisive, joint European action. We must rise to this challenge.”