The UK economy suffered its biggest slump in more than three centuries last year, with GDP falling by nearly 10% over the course of 2020.
That means the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively wiped out all growth in the United Kingdom over the last 7 years, returning the economy close to the size it was in 2013. The 9.9% slump in UK GDP was less severe than expected but still surpassed the 9.7% collapse experienced during the Great Depression in 1921, making it the worst annual drop since 1709, according to a Bank of England database. That was when Europe’s harshest winter in 500 years caused widespread death and destruction. «This time it’s a pandemic to blame whereas back then, it was a Great Frost, which saw ice in the North Sea, and the War of Spanish Succession… which was doing the damage,» wrote Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes in a research note on Friday. There were some signs of improvement in the final months of 2020, with GDP estimated to have increased by 1% in the fourth quarter, following record growth in the third, according to the Office for National Statistics. But there were big swings in output between October and December, largely tracking the level of restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. The United Kingdom suffered one of the worst recessions among major economies last year. Germany, for example, held up better in the pandemic than it did during the global financial crisis.
