The United States and Europe have posted their biggest economic decline in decades. Business investment, exports and consumer spending all dropped as coronavirus lockdowns put the brakes on economic activity. In both the US and the European cases, the record dropsin GDP come despite major government spending programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of America’s biggest tech companies have announced their financial results for the last quarter. Facebook came out on top, reporting an almost doubling in profit despite an advertiser boycott during the quarter. Meanwhile Amazon posted its highest profit ever and Apple beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations. But Google parent Alphabet announced its first ever decline in overall revenue due to flagging ad sales. Airbus posted a quarterly loss of 1.9 billion euros. The airplane maker says the coronavirus has presented the industry with its gravest crisis ever. The company sold half as many planes during the first six months of this year as it did during the same period in 2019. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has overtaken Samsung as the largest smartphone maker in the world. That’s according to market research company Canalys. Analysts say China’s early recovery from the coronavirus pandemic reinvigorated Huawei’s domestic market, where it sells more than 70 percent of its phones.
US and Europe report record GDP declines due to coronavirus | DW News
