When the coronavirus forced China to shut down large parts of the country, the economic figures were horrible. Manufacturing and particularly services dived deep into contraction during January and February. That’s when everyone panicked, after realizing that the negative impact on the economy and the possible troubles that might follow were going to be a bigger problem than the virus itself.

The virus broke out in Europe in late February and even more so in March and the panic increased further. The economic data from Italy in particular, and for the Eurozone as a whole, turned really horrible, showing a deep contraction like in China.

Now, the data from North America for March is starting to come out and even though they shut down slowly by the middle of last month, the numbers are pretty bad nonetheless and the situation should get worse in April. Below are the GDP report and the home sales report from Canda, as well as the US industrial production, all of which show a deep contraction.

Flash GDP Estimate For The First Time From Statistics Canada

• Canada Q1 GDP flash estimate -2.6%
• March GDP -9% annualized
• March decline would be largest since series started in 1961

Canadian March Existing Home Sales

• March existing home sales -14.3% vs -10.0% expected
• February home sales was +5.9% MoM
• Home sales YoY +7.8%
• New listings -12.55%
• Prices paid YoY +6.89%
• National average sales price YoY +12.47%

US March Industrial Production Data

• March industrial production -5.4% vs -4.0% expected
• February industrial production was +0.6% MoM
• Manufacturing production -6.3% vs -3.2% expected
• February manufacturing production +0.1% (revised to -0.1%)
• Capacity utilization 72.7% vs 73.8% expected