UK economy shrank less than feared

Office for National Statistics has revealed that gross domestic product in January was 2.9 percent lower than in December, reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s economy shrank by less than feared in January as the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown, official data showed, but trade with the European Union was hit hard at the start of the country’s new, post-Brexit trading relationship.

Gross domestic product in January was 2.9 percent lower than in December, the Office for National Statistics said.

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Britain’s economy is likely to shrink by 4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, due mostly to the latest lockdown but also because of disruption caused by new, post-Brexit rules for trade with the European Union, the Bank of England said last month.

The BoE is expected to keep its stimulus programmes on hold at the end of its March meeting next Thursday as it predicts that Britain’s vaccination programme – Europe’s fastest — will trigger a bounce-back in the economy in the coming months.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed exports and imports from Britain to the EU plunged by the most on record although the ONS said a difference in the way the figures were gathered was causing a delay to some data.

Exports of goods to the EU, excluding non-monetary gold and other precious metals, slumped by 40.7 percent. Imports fell by 28.8 percent.

Many companies brought forward imports of goods late last year to avoid the risk of border disruption as the new UK-EU trading relationship began in early 2021 and global trade flows have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

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The ONS said the overall GDP figures were hit hard by the impact of social distancing rules on Britain’s huge services sector.

Britain’s economy shrank by 1.7 percent in the three months to January, a smaller fall than a median forecast of a contraction of 2.5 percent in the Reuters poll.

The economy was 9.2 percent smaller than in January last year, the ONS Statistics said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to ease England’s coronavirus restrictions gradually before lifting most of them by late June.

Growth in the next few months is also likely to get a boost from finance minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement last week that he will pump a further 65 billion pounds into the economy, including an extension of his jobs-protecting furlough scheme.

The ONS said Britain’s dominant services sector – which has been hit hard by social-distancing rules – shrank by 3.5 percent in January from December.

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Manufacturing contracted by 2.3 percent but construction output rose by 0.9 percent.

The monthly fall of nearly 3 percent in GDP in January was much less severe than its plunge of 18.3 percent in April last year when Britain went into its first coronavirus lockdown.

Many companies have adapted to life under lockdown, including retailers who have ramped up their online shopping operations and services firms who have tried to help workers to do their jobs from home.