The United Kingdom saw its economy suffer a " record " contraction of 20.4% in the second quarter, hit by the coronavirus crisis, and is officially facing its worst recession on record, according to the ONS. Economists consider that a country enters a technical recession when it accumulates two consecutive quarters of contraction in its economy. According to the National Statistics Office which publishes these figures on Wednesday, most of the contraction, which began to be felt in March, occurred in April, an entire month of containment and almost total cessation of the activity that saw production collapse by 20%.
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With a very early recovery in construction sites and manufacturing activity, gross domestic product (GDP) rebounded in May by 2.4% (revised figure), followed by an acceleration in June (+8.7 %) thanks in particular to the reopening of all shops, specifies the ONS. This is the biggest contraction in the UK economy since the ONS started these quarterly statistics in 1955, he said. The historical magnitude of this recession reflects " restrictions " on travel and activity that have taken place since the entry into force of containment in the country on March 23. The statistics body notes that, over the two quarters of recession, the British economy contracted by 22.1%, " a little less than the 22.7% observed in Spain but more than double the fall of GDP of 10.6% in the United States ”over the same period.
For the ONS, this " larger contraction " in the United Kingdom than in most European countries reflects the longer duration of containment measures. “ I have said before that difficult times await us, today's figures confirm it. Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly, in the months to come, many more will follow suit ”. " But if there are tough choices that will have to be made, we will weather" this storm, he added.