According to official statistics released on Monday, the UK economy was hit by the coronavirus pandemic more severely than previously thought. The data indicated the nation had its largest decline in GDP growth since 1709.
According to the Office for National Statistics, annual volume GDP growth in 2020 was downgraded by 1.7 percentage points, or 11%, the greatest decline in more than 300 years and the poorest among G7 nations.
The Office for National Statistics reported that in 2020, the gross domestic product decreased by 11.0%. According to historical statistics stored by the Bank of England, this decline was more than any of the ONS’s earlier projections and the greatest decline since 1709.
As fresh information becomes available, British statisticians frequently revises GDP estimates. Initial projections from the ONS indicated that in 2020 Britain had its largest drop in output since the “Great Frost” of 1709. The ONS, however, recently reduced the fall’s magnitude downward to 9.3%, the highest since shortly after World War One.
Britain’s economic downturn was already the biggest in the Group of Seven before the most recent revisions, and the most recent downward revision makes it even worse than Spain’s, which recorded a 10.8% decline in GDP.
The ONS, however, advised against making direct comparisons with other nations because most of them, with the exception of the United States, had not yet carried out the kind of thorough adjustments that Britain had.
The GDP was revised downward to reflect fewer contributions from merchants and healthcare than initially estimated.
The British economy experienced a remarkable rebound in 2018 and reached its pre-pandemic size in November 2021. The Bank of England anticipates that the economy will enter a new recession later this year, however, as a result of rapidly rising inflation. On September 30, the ONS will release revised growth estimates for 2021 and the first half of 2022.
The National Health Service in Britain had already taken into account a decline in routine treatment as it concentrated on treating Covid-19 patients and containing the disease’s spread in hospitals.
