The Biggest Fall in GDP the UK has Ever Seen

Data published today by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the first to show the devastating effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the lockdown measures taken in March to limit transmission of the virus.

Having shrunk by 6 percent in March, real GDP fell by 20.4 percent in April, when it stood at a level 24.5 percent smaller than April 2019 and equal to that of 2002.

In the ONS report, Jonathan Athow, Deputy National Statistician for Economic Statistics, says:

“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 percent smaller than in February.

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.

The UK’s trade with the rest of the world was also badly affected by the pandemic, with large falls in both the import and export of cars, fuels, works of art and clothing.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson say the numbers are not surprising because Britain has a large services sector that was hit hard by physical-distancing measures and vowed that the UK will “bounce back”.