BERLIN, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The gross domestic product of Germany in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 was down by 2.2 percent on the 4th quarter of 2019 upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustments, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Friday.
According to Destatis, it is the largest decrease since the global financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, and the second largest since German unification.
"The corona pandemic has hit the German economy hard," Destatis noted in a statement.
Although the spread of the coronavirus did not have a major effect on the economic performance of January and February, the impact of the pandemic has been serious for the first quarter of 2020, Destatis added.
The day before, a study published by consulting firm Ernst & Young showed that operating profit (EBIT) of Germany's large companies shrank by 23.5 percent to a total of around 20.3 billion euros (21.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 Q1, compared to the same quarter last year.
Also on Thursday, the German Ministry of Finance said that Germany would have 81.5 billion euros (88 billion U.S. dollars) less in tax revenues in 2020 than last year due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
As of Friday, Germany has reported a total of 174,478 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 7,884 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Enditem
