As Europe burgeons into a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K. economy shrank 20.4% in the second quarter this year, reporting an alarming recession and an equally worse death toll.
Bank of England officials warn against the steep second-quarter fall, steeper than what was seen in the Great Depression. We can gauge the losses as compared to 12% of the Eurozone and 9.5% for the U.S. output.
As the lockdown restrictions ease, the U.K. economy would steady itself only until the end of 2021, as per the Bank of England. With the U.K. economy being heavily reliant on major services and household spending, and with both having to suffer significant losses in the second quarter, millions of workers are now facing the unemployment crisis. As many as 730,000 jobs have been scrapped since the inception of strict lockdown in March.
In a statement, U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, said that the figures [on Wednesday] confirm that hard times are there with hundreds of thousands already losing their jobs and more to lose in the coming months.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the country’s economic output fell with a snowball effect by 22.1% in the first half of 2020, far worse than that of France, Germany, and Italy.