….As other nations battle recession amidst challenges
By Gbenga Abulude
Poland is experiencing its first recession since the end of the communist era more than three decades ago, data published by Poland’s statistics office on Friday showed.
The economy shrank by 8.9 percent in the second quarter because of the effects of the coronavirus lockdown, after a contraction of 0.4 percent in the first quarter.
Poland was the only European Union member state to avoid recession during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, and has enjoyed healthy growth rates until now.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toil on the economy of many countries as they are on the verge of entering recession or has entered recession.
Recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of contraction.
Two days ago, August 12, the UK officially entered recession for first time in 11 years.
The UK economy suffered its biggest slump on record between April and June as coronavirus lockdown measures pushed the country officially into recession.
The economy shrank 20.4% compared with the first three months of the year.
In April, it was announced that France and Italy entered a recession in the first three months of this year while Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plunged sharply, new data on COVID-19’s impact on European economies indicates.
The preliminary growth figures for Europe come just a day after US authorities revealed the country’s GDP had contracted for the first time since 2014
The Asian Nation of Phillippines is said to have also entered recession.
The Philippine economy shrunk 16.5% in the second quarter of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country.
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The latest figure is the lowest quarterly growth recorded since 1981, bringing the country to a technical recession.
Nigeria is also at the verge of a recession if the economy doesn’t improve in the following months.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, the world is in the face of a devastating impact due to the coronavirus pandemic and has clearly entered a recession. She projected a recovery next year
“We have reassessed the prospects for growth for 2020 and 2021. It is now clear that we have entered a recessionas bad or worse than in 2009. We do project recovery in 2021,” she said addressing reporters in a news conference in March.
