European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde told Europe's heads of government that lockdowns being imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic could easily cause the European Union's economy to shrink by 5%, the Frankfurter Allgemeine reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper cited high-ranking EU diplomats who had said that her estimates of the impact of the lockdown measures ranged between 2% and 10% of total growth.

The core calculation was based on the assumption that each month of lockdown would reduce growth by 2.1%, the newspaper cited the ECB as saying. The assumption that the economy would shrink 5% was based on a "realistic" assumption that lockdowns would last for three months, the bank told the newspaper.