German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes off her face mask while holding a press conference on the real situation amid the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic, following a meeting with her so-called Corona-Cabinet, on November 2, 2020 at Berlin.
Kay Nietfeld | AFP | Getty Images
Germany’s economy contracted by 5% in 2020, according to GDP (gross domestic product) data released on Thursday throughout the year.
Preliminary figures, which were slightly better than the 5.1% forecast, come after a year of economic turmoil for Germany and the rest of the world, as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted business and large areas of the economy.
Coronavirus cases have caused several blockages in public life and economic activity in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last week that the latest blockade will be extended until the end of the month.
Amid concerns over the spread of a more virulent variant of the virus, initially identified in Britain, the German newspaper Bild reported earlier this week that Merkel told a meeting of lawmakers in her Christian Democratic Union party that the current deadlock could last until early April.
On Thursday, Germany reported more than 25,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 1,978,590, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute.