Spain economy contracts 18.5% during lockdown

The Spanish economy contracted 18.5% in the second quarter, the sharpest slump since the country's national statistics agency began collecting data, figures released on Friday showed.

Spain went into a more than three-month lockdown in mid-March as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths surged across the country. The lockdown ended on 21 June.

The economic downturn wiped out more than 1 million jobs in Spain in the second quarter of this year.

Nissan and Airbus are among the major companies that have announced significant job losses.

Economy professor Juan Carlos Martinez Lázaro says that although Spain will see a bounceback in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, it will take about two years for the country's economy to return to its pre-coronavirus shape.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is due to meet the country's regional leaders on Friday to discuss how to rebuild the economy and where to deploy billions of euros of aid from the European Union.