Covid-19 News: Live Updates – The New York Times

The damage to the world’s major economies from coronavirus lockdowns has been six times more severe than the 2009 global financial crisis and created an “unprecedented” blow to growth in the second quarter in almost every country except China, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday.

Growth in the nations represented by the Group of 20 — an organization of 19 countries and the European Union, representing 80 percent of the world’s economic production — fell by a record 6.9 percent between April and June from the previous three months as governments kept people indoors and froze business activity. The drop eclipsed a 1.9 percent contraction recorded in the same period in 2009, when the financial crisis was at a peak, the organization said.

China, where lockdowns ended earlier than in the rest of the world, was the only economy to bounce back, expanding at an 11.5 percent rate.

While growth figures have been published by national governments, the organization’s tally puts the magnitude of the damage into a global perspective. The biggest growth declines were in India (minus 25.2 percent) and Britain (minus 20.4 percent).

Growth in the United States shrank by more than 9 percent, and by nearly 15 percent in the euro area. By contrast, China, South Korea and Russia appeared to be the least negatively affected.

The global economy will fare far worse should a second wave of infections lead governments to renew wide-scale quarantines, the organization has warned.

Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Liz Alderman, Tim Arango, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Aurelien Breeden, Maria Cramer, Abdi Latif Dahir, Shaila Dewan, Shawn Hubler, Jennifer Jett, Annie Karni, Isabel Kershner, Gina Kolata, Alex Marshall, Jennifer Medina, Bryan Pietsch, Elisabetta Povoledo, Alan Rappeport, Campbell Robertson, Amanda Rosa, Adam Satariano, Anna Schaverien, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Kurt Streeter, Kate Taylor and Katie Thomas.