The initial estimate by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), indicated that household consumption was down by just over seven per cent, while general Government consumption fell by three per cent.

There was also a marked impact on trade, with imports, which had plunged in the second quarter as the pandemic first took a grip, retreating by 11.6 per cent year-on-year and exports tumbling 16.7 per cent.

One economist, Mathieu Plane, quoted in Le Monde, said: "We have never lost as much in two centuries outside war-time."

Even so, the decline was somewhat smaller than the nine per cent estimate included in the January 2021 update of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook.

This projected an overall 3.5 per cent contraction in world output in 2020.

One major national economy alone is expected to have grown in this COVID-blighted year - the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic host China.

The IMF estimates that the world’s most populous country grew by 2.3 per cent last year, and will grow by more than eight per cent in 2021.

France is by no means the only country to have found itself preparing for an Olympics in a recessionary environment - a serious financial crisis hit during the countdown to London 2012.

In some respects, a period of subdued demand is not unhelpful, for example, facilitating efforts to keep construction costs under better control.

Hard-up companies and consumers may not be conducive to strong sponsorship or merchandise sales, however.

With the virus still far from beaten, Games organisers may be counting their blessings that Paris 2024-related building projects are comparatively modest, certainly when compared with the amount of new building undertaken in the name of London 2012.

INSEE said that the effects of the second French lockdown were "mainly reflected in household consumption expenditure."