Private consumption, mainly in services such as eating and drinking as well as accommodations, decreased significantly due to self-restraint from going outside and conducting businesses. The real GDP growth rate for the January-March quarter of 2020 was minus 2.2 percent on an annualized quarter-on-quarter basis, and that for the April-June quarter also is likely to be substantially negative.
The second example concerns the risk that the purchase of government securities on the secondary market under the SMP may create an incentive for the authorities of the interested countries to postpone the adoption of the measures necessary for fiscal consolidation or for the restructuring of the financial system.