French Minister of Finance Bruno Lemerre said that the country will witness its worst economic downturn since World War II.
According to Reuters, the minister said that this decline far exceeds the contraction of 2.2 percent witnessed in 2009 after the global financial crisis.
"Perhaps we have exceeded the -2.2 percent rate recorded in 2009," the minister added to the Senate during a remote session. "This shows the scale of the economic shock we are facing.
The government estimate last month in an emergency budget update that the economy will shrink 1 percent this year, but has since indicated that it will have to review that figure.
