Nearly one million more jobs will be lost in France over the next six months with unemployment hitting record levels next year, the country’s central bank warned today.
In a bleak forecast, the bankers said that the coronavirus-ravaged French economy would shrink by about 10 per cent this year, taking unemployment to 11.8 per cent by the middle of 2021.
The bankers also warned that it will not be until mid-2022 before France’s economy returns to pre-coronavirus levels in a bleak forecast indicating the scale of the damage inflicted by the lockdown imposed by President Emmanuel Macron.
It is now being relaxed, with the head of France’s scientific advisory committee saying last week that the virus is “under control”, although restrictions, including on travel, are still in place.
Unemployment in France has already risen sharply, surging by 22.6 per cent in April, to take the number of people registered as looking for work to a peak of 4,575,500.
The country’s furlough scheme has been extended in response and is now expected to last up to two years, far longer than the end of October cut-off date set by the UK Government.
There was also further bleak economic news from Germany today as official figures showed the biggest monthly decline in exports and imports since 1990.
European countries are continuing to emerge from lockdown, including Denmark, where Copenhagen’s famous Tivoli Gardens have reopened.
Russia’s lockdown was eased today with Moscow residents allowed to travel freely for first time since late March, despite around 2,000 cases still being recorded in the capital every day.
