Official figures show that the British economy shrank by a colossal 20.4 percent in April, the first full month that the country was in its coronavirus lockdown. The Office for National Statistics said today that all areas of the economy were hit, in particular pubs, education, health and car sales. Jonathan Athow, Deputy National Statistician for Economic Statistics, said April's fall is "the biggest the U.K. has ever seen'' and "almost 10 times larger than the steepest pre-coronavirus fall.'' In April, the economy was about a quarter smaller than it was in February. The U.K. was put into lockdown on March 23 and restrictions are slowly being eased.

Source: The Standard June 12, 2020 06:45 UTC