China's GDP contracted by almost 7% in the first quarter of 202 0

China's economy contracted 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, after growing 6 percent in the last three months of 2019 and a 6.5 percent decline from market forecasts.

This is the first decline in GDP since records began in 1992, reflecting the severe damage caused by the COVID-19 outbreak after authorities forced the shutdown of all non-essential business activity for almost two months. The industrial sector fell 9.6 percent, services fell 5.2 percent and the mainstream fell 3.2 percent. Auto production recorded a sharp decline of 44.6 percent.