The final numbers for the first quarter of this year are out, but while they’re not quite as bad as originally predicted, they haven’t been this bad since the financial crisis. GDP fell just 2 percent compared to Q1 2019, slightly better than the 2.2 percent result originally reported by the Czech Statistics Office (CSU). Compared to Q4 2019, the drop was 3.4 percent, which was also 0.2 percent better than originally reported. However, some truly frightening numbers are almost certainly on the way for the second quarter of the year, since the lockdown was in place for the majority of that time. “The extraordinary situation in March showed up in a decline in the profit levels and the volume of investments in non-financial companies,” said the CSU’s Vladimir Kermiet.
