Britain’s economy shrank by a fifth in size during April as the coronavirus lockdown shuttered factories, offices and shops, official data showed Friday, stoking concerns over a painful recession.
Gross domestic product nosedived by a record 20.4 percent after a 5.8-percent contraction in March, the Office for National Statistics said.
Taken together, the slump over March and April was three times worse than during the global financial crisis of more than a decade ago, the ONS added.
The dire data capped a week of bad news for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who faces increasing criticism over his handling of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak as Britain’s death toll surpassed 40,000 people to reach the second highest in the world.
The UK government imposed a lockdown on March 23 — later than many other virus-hit nations — to halt the spread of COVID-19.
It has also backed up employee wages in a costly furlough jobs retention scheme, while the Bank of England (BoE) has injected enormous amounts of liquidity and slashed interest rates to a record-low 0.1 percent.
The UK economy shrunk by 2.0 percent in the first quarter, and another contraction in the current second quarter, or April-June period, would put it in recession.
Analysts say a recession is likely already underway because of the staggering impact of the virus lockdown and despite Britain gradually easing stay-at-home restrictions.
The economy meanwhile shrank by 10.4 percent in the three months to the end of April.
The OECD this week predicted the UK economy was on course to shrink by more than 11 percent in 2020 because of COVID-19.
The Bank of England has warned that the economic paralysis could lead to Britain’s worst recession in centuries amid a broader global economic downturn.
The pandemic, which has blighted economies worldwide, had a “significant and wide-ranging negative impact” on British businesses.
The data comes as Britain presses ahead with its lockdown easing plans.