The European Union economy shrank 3.5% in the first quarter of 2020, feeling the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

EU on course for recession: This is the worst quarterly drop since the EU started collecting the data in 1995, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistic office, and puts the EU on course for recession if the second quarter growth is also negative.

Growth in the Eurozone, which just includes countries using the Euro, contracted 3.8%.

France enters recession: Earlier this morning France, one of Europe’s biggest economies, sank into recession, after its Q1 GDP shrank 5.8%.

Feeling the strain: Globally, economies are feeling the strain of the coronavirus pandemic — the US economy contracted for the first time in nearly six years between January and March.

America’s first-quarter GDP, the most expansive measure of the US economy, fell at a 4.8% annualized rate, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Wednesday.