Tester Cameron Robertson speaks with a person to be tested in a corona screening station in Ebersberg near Munich, southern Germany, on April 29, 2020, amid the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP photo)

The German government has warned that the country’s economy is expected to suffer the biggest slump of its history this year over the COVID-19 crisis.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Wednesday that his country will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic founded in 1949.

He said the European power’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to shrink by a record 6.3 percent as demand for exports decreases dramatically and lockdown restrictions weigh on domestic consumption.

The impacts of the recession caused by the pandemic will push the country into a recession after 10 years of growth, he warned.

If the government’s projection is confirmed, this year will mark the biggest contraction since federal statistics authority Destatis began keeping records in 1970.

Altmaier said the world economy as a whole is expected to tip into recession caused by the outbreak, with the International Monetary Fund predicting a worldwide contraction of 2.8 percent in 2020.

Job fears and coronavirus restrictions that have kept shops and entertainment venues closed are set to weigh heavily on demand at home too, dealing a blow to the key growth driver of domestic consumption.

Half of world’s workforce may lose jobs: ILO

Meanwhile, the UN’s labor agency has warned that almost half the global workforce - 1.6 billion people - are in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed by the economic repercussions of the pandemic.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday that of the total global working population of 3.3 billion, about 2 billion work in the informal economy, often on short-term contracts or self-employment, and have suffered a 60% collapse in their wages in the first month of the crisis.

Of these, 1.6 billion face losing their livelihoods, it added.

Speaking at a briefing, the UN agency’s director general, Guy Ryder, foresaw a massive poverty impact as a result of the virus.

Over three million people are now infected with the new coronavirus and some 224,000 others have so far died of the illness caused by the virus (COVID-19) around the world, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

More than one million people - roughly one third of the global toll - are infected in the United States, making it the worst-hit country in the world.

SOURCE: PRESS TV