<span style="color: #222222;">In  Germany, the economy shrank by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period as shutdowns in the country.<br />''<br />''The latest data, released by the federal statistics authority Destasis today, also showed revisions to 2019 fourth-quarter figures from zero growth to a contraction of 0.1%.<br />''<br />''The decline in the January-March period was the biggest since 2009. This means Germany is now in a recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. The first quarter figures are only a partial indication of how much the pandemic has harmed Europe's largest economy.<br />''<br />''Coronavirus lockdown measures were introduced in the country in mid-March, just two weeks before the end of the first quarter.<br />''Meanwhile, Shops have now reopened, restaurants are gradually opening up and auto production has restarted.</span><br />