Even as India has shown the sings of becoming the new global epicentre of novel coronavirus, the country’s economy has been served a knock-out punch amid the pandemic. The arbitrary and unplanned lockdown imposed by the Narendra Modi led government mainly weighed on the already-declining consumer demand and investment in the country.
With the data showing contraction in India’s GDP by 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year 2020, India is trailing behind all G7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Barring China, the world's second-largest economy, all other major economies have felt the negative impact of coronavirus pandemic. In the April-June quarter of 2020, Chinese economy grew by 3.2 per cent.
Here's how the major economies of the world have performed during the period:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom (UK) reported a 21.7 per cent contraction in the April-June quarter of 2020. It is the UK's second consecutive quarterly decline. On account of government restrictions, there has been a record quarterly fall in services, production and construction during the period.
France
France's GDP contracted by a record 18.9 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020 amid coronavirus lockdowns. Even as the GDP numbers were better than forecast, the performance was much worse than other Eurozone economies.
Italy
Italy's GDP shrank 17.7 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020. These numbers are the lowest on record since Q1 of 1995. "After the significant decrease recorded in the first quarter (down 5.5 per cent), in the second quarter of 2020 the Italian economy suffered an unprecedented contraction...due to the full deployment of the (COVID-19) health emergency," the government agency which releases Italy's official statistics wrote in a note.
Canada
The GDP of Canada contracted by 13 per cent (as per CEIC) in the April-June quarter of 2020. The contraction was on account of fall in consumer spending, business investment, imports and exports due to COVID-19. The GDP contracted at a 38.7 per cent annualised rate in the given quarter.
Annualised rate is a rate for a period of less than a year. But, it is calculated as if it's a rate for a full year. In other words, it is an estimated rate of annual return that is extrapolated mathematically.
Germany
The GDP of Germany contracted during this year's April-June quarter by 11.3 per cent. It is the steepest since the country's statistical office began tracking quarterly economic data a half-century ago.
Japan
Japan's economy shrank a record 9.9 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020 amid the coronavirus induced economic woes. It is the worst economic contraction for Japan since comparable data became available in 1980, eclipsing the brutal impact of the 2008 global financial crisis.
US
The US GDP shrank 9.1 per cent for the April-June quarter of 2020. This is the largest quarterly decline since the series began in 1947, even as the market expectations were much lower than the actual number. The GDP contracted at a 31.7 per cent annualised rate in the given quarter.
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