(Alliance News)12 Jun 2020 09:08
LONDON BRIEFING: UK Economy Has Worst Month On Record In April
Fri, 12th Jun 2020 07:54Alliance News
- The UK economy shrank by a fifth in the month of April, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics on Friday.
Gross domestic product slumped 20% month-on-month in April, the biggest monthly fall since the series began - far steeper than the falls of 5.8% and 0.2% seen in March and February respectively. In the three months to April, the economy contracted an "unprecedented" 10% on a sequential basis.
The latest release captures the direct effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and UK government measures taken to stem its spread.
The ONS noted in a separate release that April's GDP decline was three times greater than the fall experienced during the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn. Throughout the 2008 recession, GDP shrunk by no more than 2.1% in a single quarter.
"April's fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen, more than three times larger than last month and almost ten times larger than the steepest pre-Covid-19 fall. In April the economy was around 25% smaller than in February," said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for Economic Statistics at the ONS.
"Virtually all areas of the economy were hit, with pubs, education, health and car sales all giving the biggest contributions to this historic fall. Manufacturing and construction also saw significant falls, with manufacture of cars and housebuilding particularly badly affected," he said.