The UK economy is officially more screwed than it’s ever been since records began.
The office for national statistics has released figures showing that in the second quarter of 2020, the British economy contracted by over 20%, the biggest drop since they started measuring in the 1950s.
Jonathan Athow, the deputy statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has led to the biggest fall in quarterly GDP on record.
“The economy began to bounce back in June, with shops reopening, factories beginning to ramp up production and housebuilding continuing to recover. Despite this, GDP in June still remains a sixth below its level in February, before the virus struck.”
Among the other G7 countries, the UK is performing the worst, with the 20% contraction nearly double the 10.6% dip in the US GDP. We also did worse that France, Germany and even Italy in the second quarter as government lockdowns ravaged the service industry which took a 19% plunge.
Other sectors including construction, manufacturing and retail also dropped off as consumer spending dropped by over 25%.
Rishi Sunak said: “I’ve said before that hard times were ahead and today’s figures confirm that hard times are here. Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs and, sadly, in the coming months many more will. But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this.”
There is a small silver lining however, as monthly growth figures show the UK economy making a gentle recovery in June as lockdown controls were loosened and some consumer spending returned and growth beat analyst predictions as GDP grew 8.7%.
