UK HITS RECESSION, FIRST TIME AFTER 2009

The UK economy suffered its most significant collapse between April and June as coronavirus lockdown measures pushed the country into recession.

The British economy shrank 20.4% compared with the first three months of the year.

Household spending dropped as soon as the shops were ordered to close, while factory and construction output also plunged.

This situation pushed the United Kingdom into its first technical recession – defined as two ensuing quarters of economic decline – since 2009.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said for the BBC that the government was confronted with something uncommon and that it was a very hard and uncertain time.

But shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the scale of the economic decline, saying: “A downturn was inevitable after lockdown – but Johnson’s jobs crisis wasn’t.”

Is there any hint of the situation getting better?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) explained that the economy bounced back in June as government restrictions on the movement started to mitigate.

On a month-on-month basis, the economy grew by 8.7% in June, after a growth of 1.8% in May.

As Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics explained that, despite this situation, gross domestic product (GDP) remained in June a sixth below its level in February before the virus hit.

Which part of the economy has suffered most?

The ONS explained that the collapse in production driven by the closing of shops, hotels, restaurants, schools, and car repair shops.

The services sector, which drives the four-fifths of the economy, suffered the most significant quarterly decline.

What is the government doing about it?

Official job figures released on Tuesday showed the number of employed people dropped by 220,000 between April and June.

The chancellor explained that the government should not pretend that absolutely everybody will be able to get back the job they had and said there would be support for opening jobs in new places.

The opposition has been criticizing the government’s approach to the economy during the virus outbreak.

Ms. Dodds also said that the UK already got the worst glut death rate in Europe – now the UK is on the course for the worst recession. He added that all of that is a huge tragedy that happened under Boris Johnson’s watch.”

Referring to the furlough scheme’s tapering scheme, she said the government had “snatched away wage support for businesses that hadn’t even reopened yet.”

How does the UK compare with other nations?

The UK’s collapse is one of the biggest among advanced economies, according to preliminary evaluation.

The economy is more than a fifth lesser than it was at the end of last year. This drop is not as bad as the 22.7% decline in Spain, but about twice the size of decreasing in Germany and the US.

The chancellor told the BBC that the UK economy had performed worse than its EU equivalents because it paid attention to services, hospitality, and consumer spending.