The German economy entered a recession due to the coronavirus crisis, the German statistics office Destatis said Monday. The country’s GDP contracted 2.2% in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2019.

Destatis said that GDP fell 2.3% on year in the first quarter on a calendar and price-adjusted basis. It added that this is the second largest decrease since German unification, following a 4.7% decline in the first quarter of 2009.

Germany imposed a lockdown on March 22 and started a gradual reopening of the economy on April 20. The figures showed that investments in the engineering sector, construction and public expenditure helped prevent an even bigger downturn.

Household final consumption declined 3.2% and government expenditure rose 0.2%. Exports of goods decreased 4.0%, exports of services increased 0.7%, while imports of goods and services were down 1.6%.

Around 45 million people were in employment in the first quarter, an increase of 0.3% on year. Such a small year-on-year increase had last been observed in the second quarter of 2010, Destatis said.