French economy shrinks by 13.8% during lockdown

France's economy shrank by nearly 14% per cent in the second quarter of this year when the country was in coronavirus lockdown, the national statistics agency said on Friday.

It marked a third consecutive quarter of negative growth amid a worsening recession.

The startling plunge of 13.8% in France's GDP from April to June starkly illustrated the punishing economic cost of the two-month lockdown.

The pain was so damaging to jobs and industries that the government is talking down the possibility of another nationwide lockdown as infections tick upward again.

France's economy was already slowing, shrinking by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2019, before the pandemic hit with full force.

The country's GDP then fell 5.9% in the first quarter of 2020 as COVID-19 patients started to flood and overwhelm hospitals.

That health crisis, with COVID-19 killing more than 30,000 people in France, prompted the government in March to introduce what was one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, halting much activity in the second-largest economy of the countries that use the euro currency.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has called on French consumers to help kickstart the recovery.

"The best way to come out of this economic crisis quickly is for the French to spend," he said Friday.