France‘s economic outlook is deteriorating as restrictions in a second nationwide lockdown hurt activity and a surge in Covid-19 cases raises the possibility of an intensification of the crisis, reports Bloomberg.
The coming days will be crucial in determining whether President Emmanuel Macron‘s measures are sufficient to stem the spread of the virus and relieve pressure on hospitals. So far, there is little sign of respite with record numbers of new cases in recent days and intensive care units nearing capacity due to severely ill patients.
The government is already preparing to cut its forecast for a 8% rebound in economic output next year, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with Sunday paper Journal Du Dimanche. The severity of the revision to the outlook may depend on whether authorities decide to loosen or tighten restrictions that they are due to review Thursday.
“We are mobilizing now to keep the lockdown to the shortest possible period,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Europe 1 radio. “Clearly, we don’t want a video-conference Christmas.”
France is emerging as the epicenter of Europe’s latest Covid-19 outbreak. On Saturday, health authorities said the country has crossed the threshold of 40,000 deaths and added almost 87,000 new cases as they accounted for several days of under-reporting. Patients sick with the virus filled 87.2% of intensive-care capacity, an increase from 85.4% on Friday.