Global economic forecasts for major western nations hit by Covid-19 have been revised downwards again – with Italy now set to see its GDP drop by more than 8% during the year.
The latest figures from GlobalData suggest the UK’s economy will shrink by 5.4%, France’s by 6.0% and Germany’s by 5.2%. All three of those forecasts are worse than similar figures produced the previous week.
Japan has seen an even sharper dip in its economic prospects after a rise in Covid-19 cases saw prime minister Shinzo Abe declare a national state of emergency. GlobalData now predict negative GDP growth of 4.4% for Japan across 2020 – down from a predicted 3.2% the previous week.
Overall, the global economy is now expected to shrink by 2.2% in 2020 – a slight improvement on the 2.3% predicted the previous week. That is mainly down to relative success in containing major coronavirus outbreaks to Europe, North America and parts of Asia – so far.
Major stock markets indices in the UK, France, Germany and Italy were stable this week but remain at below 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
Covid-19 macroeconomic dashboard
We are using exclusive dynamic figures provided by GlobalData analysts to track key economic indicators in major world economies hit by Covid-19. Deaths from the virus are plotted alongside the indexed performance of each country’s major stock exchange and the number of “active jobs” – jobs open for applications across all major industries. Figures are tracked daily from the March 1, 2020.
