Historically horrific. The United Kingdom reported an unprecedented 20.4% contraction in its GDP for April compared to March -- the largest monthly growth plunge in its long history. GDP tumbled 5% in March.
The huge battering inflicted by the COVID-19 economic paralysis was also 24.5% lower than the 0.3% growth for April 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The UK entered full lockdown on March 23.
From January to March, the UK economy contracted by 10.4% compared to the previous three-month period. The loss of more than $63 billion (£50 billion) of economic output over the period is the equivalent to the entire annual GDP of Croatia.
ONS said the monthly decline in GDP in April is three times greater than the fall experienced during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009 and was far worse than economists had forecast. Economists previously polled by Reuters predicted a GDP plunge of 18.4% for April.
The full national lockdown that sought to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had disappointing results, however. As of Thursday, the UK had the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world (41,300) and the fifth highest number of confirmed cases (291,400).
Analysts pointed out the first quarter GDP figures highlight the damage caused by just the first few weeks of the lockdown. The second quarter estimates expected later this month will show a massive cratering of output.
Worst hit by the enormous slowdown in consumer demand were the retail, travel, hospitality, manufacturing and construction industries, all of which rely on huge workforces and face-to-face interactions. The worst affected sector over the three months, however, was construction which lost an unprecedented 40.1%.
ONS said the economy is still being battered by the huge shock since the start of the lockdown in March. Jonathan Athow, a statistician for Economic Statistics at the ONS said April's fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen. The drop was more than three times larger than March's and almost 10 times larger than the steepest pre-COVID-19 fall. He noted the economy was around 25% smaller in April than it was in February.
Athow said practically all areas of the economy were hit by the crippling economic paralysis. He noted that pubs, education, health and car sales were among the hardest hit by this historic fall. Car assembly and house building were also badly affected.
Britain's external trade also suffered greatly, with large falls in both the import and export of cars, fuels, works of art and clothing.
A sector by sector breakdown reveals the services industry, which comprises 80% of the UK's economic output, plunged by 19.0% in April, the largest monthly fall since records began in January 1997.
