Businesses in France were hit hard by the threat of a new lockdown for November as industries such as the service sector - which had still not recovered from the prior lockdown - retreated even further.
Photo: Thorsten technoman / Pexels
A new report from IHS Markit has noted that its composite purchasing managers index for France fell to 40.6 from 47.5 in October, putting it a little above the forecasts of 30.9.
For November, France's economy has seen its worst slump since May and brought it further from the 50-point threshold measured by IHS.
A second lockdown was imposed on October 30 in the face of increasing cases of coronavirus but has lapsed regulations in recent days.
Many countries across the bloc have also reaffirmed second lockdowns.
The current UK lockdown system ended on Wednesday, which was replaced by a tier system, where local areas are ranked according to risk and placed accordingly.
Germany has also recently announced a set of Christmas-based lockdown rules that are set to be imposed nationwide later in December.
Read more: German Economy Expected to Shrink In Fourth Quarter
A report conducted by FocusEconomics predicted that the French economy would decrease for Q4 owing to a resurgence in Covid cases, but predicts a rebound going into 2021.
They predict the economy will increase by 6.7% for 2021 and a further 2.9% in 2022.
IHS Markit economist Elliott Kerr told Reuters: “The measures imposed at the end of October to stem the rate of COVID-19 infections saw activity and new orders fall sharply during November.
“Similar to the trend when lockdown measures were imposed during the spring, activity fell most sharply at services firms, with Hotels & Restaurants experiencing a particularly steep decline."
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