Britain’s economy shrank by a record of 20.4% between April and June when the coronavirus lockdown was tightest, the largest contraction reported by any major economy so far. That’s according to official figures released today by the Office for National Statistics.
This crash in GDP in the April-June period is the worst since quarterly records began in 1955 and follow a 2.2% contraction in the first quarter. Industries most exposed to government lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic were services, production, and construction.
Compared with the end of 2019, UK economic output fell by a cumulative 22.1% in the first six months of 2020, a worse outcome than Germany, France, and Italy, and double the 10.6% fall recorded in the United States
There were signs of a recovery in the month of June alone when gross domestic product grew by 8.7% from May.q
