Experts warned that the country's automobile industry would be significantly damaged by the coronavirus crisis in 2020 and beyond. And more than 100,000 jobs or 12 percent of the current 830,000 jobs at car manufacturers and suppliers could be at risk.

FRANCE

In France, four million employees, or one in five, are currently under the partial unemployment scheme put in place by the government in response to the coronavirus crisis, Minister of Labor Muriel Penicaud announced on Thursday.

Under the scheme, employers pay their employees on temporary leave most of their salary. The state will then reimburse businesses in full for salaries up to 4.5 times the minimum wage.

The French government has enabled expedited procedures for employers to facilitate partial unemployment. Local media estimated that the mechanism to avoid dismissals might cost the French state coffer billions of euros.

Business leaders were more pessimistic about business climate in March with the monthly sentiment indicator tumbling by 10 points, the biggest decline since records began in 1980, official data released last Thursday.

In March, employment climate composite indicator has lost nine points to 96, its biggest fall since the records started in 1991, according to national statistics institute Insee, which expected that each month of confinement would cut economic growth by 12 percentage points on a quarterly basis and 3 percentage points on an annual basis.

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