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German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes off her face mask as she gives 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 in Berlin.
Kay Nietfeld | AFP | Getty Images
The German economy contracted by 5% in 2020, according to annual GDP (gross domestic product) data released on Thursday.
The preliminary figures, which were slightly better than forecast of 5.1%, come after a year of economic turmoil for Germany and the rest of the world, as the coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption to businesses and large swathes of the world. the economy.
The coronavirus cases have caused several lockdowns of public life and economic activity in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last week that the latest lockdown will be extended until the end of the month.
Amid heightened concern over the spread of a more virulent variant of the virus, initially identified in the UK, German newspaper Bild reported earlier this week that Merkel said at a meeting of lawmakers from her party in Christian Democratic Union that the current lockdown could last until early April.
Germany on Thursday reported more than 25,000 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing its total number of cases to 1,978,590, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute.
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