These were by far the sharpest declines observed since the time series started in 1995. In the first quarter of 2020, GDP had decreased by 3.7% in the euro area and by 3.3% in the EU. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by 14.7% in the euro area and by 13.9% in the EU in the second quarter of 2020, after -3.2% and -2.7% respectively in the previous quarter. Among Member States for which data are available for the second quarter of 2020, Spain (-18.5%) recorded the sharpest decline in GDP compared to the previous quarter, followed by Croatia (-14.9%), Hungary (-14.5%), Greece (-14.0%), Portugal (-13.9%) and France (-13.8%). The lowest declines in GDP were observed in Finland (-4.5%), Lithuania (-5.5%) and Estonia (-5.6%), followed by Ireland (-6.1%), Latvia (-6.5%) and Denmark (-6.9%).