Economic activity in the eurozone shrank markedly in January as stringent lockdowns to contain the coronavirus pandemic hit the bloc’s dominant service industry hard, Reuters reports.

With hospitality and entertainment venues forced to remain closed across much of the continent, surveys highlighted sharp contractions in the services industry but also showed manufacturing remained strong as factories largely kept working.

In Britain, outside the European Union (EU), a third national lockdown sparked the sharpest drop in business activity since May. A post Brexit shift to a more bureaucratic trading arrangement with the EU also contributed to the decline.

Read more here.