The eurozone economy shrank by 12.1% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the previous one — the biggest drop on record, Eurostat announced.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the whole European Union is meanwhile projected to have fallen by 11.9%.

“These were by far the sharpest declines observed since time series started in 1995”, - Eurostat indicated in a statement, flagging that the April-June period was “still marked by COVID-19 containment measures in most member states”.

No country was spared the economic impact of the global pandemic but the Spanish economy was hit the hardest, contracting by 18.5%.

Portugal, which closed its border with Spain very early in the pandemic and imposed strict measures to halt the spread of the virus, registered the second-biggest contraction in the bloc at 14.1%.

The Iberian peninsula is followed by France and Italy - two countries hit hard by COVID-19 - which registered drops of 13.8% and 12.4% respectively.