UK economy shrinks by record 20.4% in April as lockdown hits all areas

Britain’s economy shrank by 20.4% in April as the full impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown was felt across the country. It was the UK's worst monthly performance since records began, according to the Office of National Statistics. "April's fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen, more than three times larger than last month and almost 10 times larger than the steepest pre-COVID-19 fall," said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, "In April, the economy was around 25% smaller than in February," he added. Athow concluded: "Virtually all areas of the economy were hit, with pubs, education, health and car sales all giving the biggest contributions to this historic fall." Economists had predicted a 19% drop ahead of the figures but the actual outturn surpassed even those gloomy forecasts. The fall was three times more than the UK’s entire downturn following the 2009 financial crash.  “Output in some sectors — such as retail — initially was supported by stockpiling in March, before slumping severely in April," according to Pantheon Macroeconomics. “In addition, many construction sites initially remained open in late March — regulations never forced them to close — before shutting completely in April. And the slump in manufacturing output likely deepened as more time elapsed, due to component shortages and depleted work backlogs,” the Pantheon analysts noted.