A woman in a protective face mask waits for clients in a souvenir shop in landmark Southbank – a cultural centre of London as the city encourages internal tourism after global Coronavirus lockdown drastically shrunk international tourism in London, England, August 10, 2020.
Dominika Zarzycka/Zuma Press
The British economy collapsed in the second quarter by the most on record in the worst showing of any major economy during the pandemic.
The U.K. gross domestic product quarter-on-quarter fall of 20.4% in the second quarter worse than even hard-hit France and Spain. It was double the roughly 10% declines of the U.S. and Germany during the period.
The 20.4% decline was slightly better than the 21.2% decline forecast by economists.
“The economy began to bounce back in June with shops reopening, factories beginning to ramp up production and housebuilding continuing to recover. Despite this, GDP in June still remains a sixth below its level in February, before the virus struck,” said ONS Deputy National Statistical for Economic Statistics Jonathan Athow.
Even as the U.K. has opened up, it still has more restrictions than other advanced economies. The Goldman Sachs effective lockdown index for the U.K. is twice as high as France’s and also above the U.S., Germany, Italy and Spain. People in Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire are banned from meeting different households indoors.
