London
The UK economy shrank by a record 20% in the second quarter amid the coronavirus lockdown, official data showed Wednesday. “It is clear that the UK is in the largest recession on record,” the Office for National Statistics said. Britain officially entered recession in the second quarter after gross domestic product contracted by 2.2% in the first three months of the year. The technical definition of a recession is two quarterly contractions in a row. The ONS said that the contraction for the first six months of 2020 “was slightly below the 22.7% seen in Spain but was more than double the 10.6% fall in United States”. It added that Britain’s dire second quarter was driven by a 20% drop in output in April, “the biggest monthly fall on record reflecting widespread… declines in output across the services, production, and construction industries”. The economy is beginning to rebound, however, as the government eases its lockdown restrictions.
