The French government on Monday scrapped its days-old economic outlook after President Emmanuel Macron extended a national lockdown, shutting down swathes of the euro zone’s second-biggest economy. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the economy was now expected to contract 8% this year instead of the 6% flagged as recently as Thursday, revising the number to take the longer lockdown into account. Since March 17, France’s 67 million people have been ordered to stay at home except to buy food, go to work, seek medical care or get some exercise on their own. The lockdown was originally scheduled to end on Tuesday. The extension would put additional strain on public finances, blowing the public sector budget deficit out to a post-war record of 9% of GDP, up from 7.6% last week, budget minister Gerald Darmanin told France Info. The government more than doubled last week a […]