New data show Britain’s biggest downturn in 300 years in 2020
The United Kingdom’s economy contracted in 2020 at the fastest rate in more than 3 centuries, according to a data review released from the first year of the Corona outbreak, which measures the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
The Office for National Statistics originally estimated that the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 9.3 percent in 2020 but announced today, Monday, that the country’s economy has contracted by 11 percent based on changes in how the data is calculated.
This revision made Britain’s worst recession since 1709, when the United Kingdom experienced a phenomenon called the “Great Frost“, which was the harshest winter the European continent had seen in almost 500 years.
The data showed that the UK economy shrank by 21 percent in the second quarter of 2020 as the country witnessed the peak of the Coronavirus instead of the previously announced 19.4 percent.
The new deflation rate adjustments during the first year of the coronavirus outbreak came after the Office for National Statistics announced that it had more detailed data on the extent of the pandemic’s impact on the economy.
The Office for National Statistics announced earlier this month that the UK economy shrank by 0.6% m/m last June and 0.1% in the second quarter of the year.
Source: AFP
