LONDON — The British economy shrank 2% in the first quarter of the year from the previous three-month period, the biggest quarterly decline since the…
LONDON —
The British economy shrank 2% in the first quarter of the year from the previous three-month period, the biggest quarterly decline since the global financial crisis of 2008 even though it included just one week of the coronavirus lockdown, official figures showed Wednesday.
The Office of National Statistics found that the slump was getting deeper as the quarter came to an end, with output down by 5.8% in March alone, the month when curbs on everyday life started being put in place by the British government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the U. K. into full lockdown on March 23, days after closing pubs and restaurants and schools.
The March figure illustrates the scale of the coronavirus slump to come, with the Bank of England, for example, warning of the biggest annual slump since 1706.
