UK plunges into recession, worst among top economies

Economy contracted by 20.4% in second quarter. Pic/AFP

The British economy has recorded the deepest coronavirus-related slump among the world's leading industrial economies after official figures on Wednesday showed it shrinking by a fifth in the second quarter alone.

The 20.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in the April to June period is worse than anything since records began in 1955, the Office for National Statistics said.

The UK economy is now in recession. Britain's recession is deeper than those recorded by comparable economies in Europe, notably Germany, France and Italy, or that of the US.

The other Group of Seven economies, Japan and Canada, have yet to post second-quarter numbers but no economist thinks they will be as bad as the UK's. Economists have blamed the delayed lockdown for the slump.

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