Britain has officially entered recession for the first time since the financial crisis due to the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed the UK’s nosedive back into recession after nearly 11 years, and there are fears of worse yet to come, according to report by mirrow.co.uk.
According to the report, fresh figures show the pandemic sent the economy plunging by a record 20.4% between April and June – with hospitality singled out as the worst-hit industry.
The ONS added that the size off the fall makes this the largest recession since records began.
The stark announcement has been declared a “tragedy for Britain” by Labour – coming just a day after it was revealed nearly one million jobs had already been lost during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown.
Alarm bells are ringing warning of another spike in job losses as firms soon have to pay towards furloughed workers’ wages before the scheme ends altogether at the end of October.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak today issued a stark warning that “many more” will lose their jobs as the recession is officially declare, but he has urged Britain not to lose hope.
His statement read: “I’ve said before that hard times were ahead, and today’s figures confirm that hard times are here.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will.
“But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity.”
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds tweeted criticism of Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis: “We’ve already got the worst excess death rate in Europe – now we’re on course for the worst recession too.
“That’s a tragedy for our country and it’s happening on the PM’s watch. A downturn was inevitable after lockdown – Johnson’s jobs crisis wasn’t.”
The ONS confirmed the official recession declaration on Wednesday, in a major milestone for a flailing UK economy.
The statistics agency said the UK economy had contracted by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020, as the Covid-19 lockdown pushed the country into an unprecedented slump.
A recession is defined as two successive quarters of decline in gross domestic product (GDP), which has not been seen in the UK since 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis.
It comes after ONS data showed around 730,000 UK workers have been removed from the payrolls of British companies since March when the lockdown began, in a sign of the pandemic’s toll on the economy.SOURCE: www/mirrow.co.uk.