The composite PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) flash indicator for the euro zone collapsed again in April, dropping to 13.5 points, against 29.7 points in March, that is, the biggest monthly contraction in activity in more than two decades of its history and the second consecutive.

Until March of this year, the historical minimum of the Markit PMI index, of 36.2 points, had been registered in February 2009, at the peak of the global financial crisis.

Globally, according to an AFP report, the covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 181,000 deaths and infected more than 2.6 million people in 193 countries and territories.

The “Great Confinement” has led the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make unprecedented forecasts in its almost 75 years: the world economy may fall 3 percent in 2020, dragged by a 5.9 percent contraction in the United States, from 7.5 percent in the euro area and 5.2 percent in Japan.

For Portugal, the IMF predicts a recession of 8 percent and an unemployment rate of 13.9 percent in 2020.