COVID-19 containment measures weighed heavily on economic activity in the second quarter of 2020, with unprecedented falls in real gross domestic product (GDP) in most G20 countries. For the G20 area as a whole, GDP dropped by a record (minus) 6.9%, significantly larger than the (minus) 1.6% recorded in the first quarter of 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.

China was the only G20 country recording growth (11.5%) in the second quarter of 2020, reflecting the earlier onset of the pandemic in this country and subsequent recovery. GDP contracted by an average of (minus) 11.8%in all other G20 economies in the second quarter of 2020, when the effects of the pandemic began to be more widely felt.

GDP fell most dramatically, by (minus) 25.2%, in India, followed by the United Kingdom (minus 20.4%). GDP also dropped sharply in Mexico (minus 17.1%), South Africa (minus 16.4%), France (minus 13.8%), Italy (minus 12.8%), Canada (minus 11.5%), Turkey (minus 11.0%), Brazil and Germany (minus 9.7% in both countries), the United States (minus 9.1%), Japan (minus 7.9%), Australia (minus 7.0%) and Indonesia (minus 6.9%). The contraction was less pronounced in Korea and Russia (minus 3.2% in both countries).

Year-on-year GDP in the G20 area fell by (minus) 9.1% in the second quarter of 2020, following a contraction of (minus) 1.7% in the previous quarter. Among G20 economies, China recorded the highest annual growth (3.2%), while India recorded the largest annual fall (minus 23.5%).