‘Our economy will recover, resilience will win the day'

BORIS Johnson promised that Britain will recover after official figures confirmed the economy shrank by a fifth during the first full month of the lockdown.

- Macer Hall

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the country’s Gross Domestic Product, which measures activity, fell by 20.4 per cent – the biggest drop on record.

The collapse, worse than the 18 per cent predicted by City experts, followed a 5.8 per cent contraction in March, suggesting the country is already in a deep recession – and is heading for its worst quarterly economic performance.

Virtually every sector slumped with manufacturing, house building and hospitality among those particularly suffering.

Despite the gloom, the Prime Minister insisted the economy was “resilient and dynamic” and would recover quickly as business resumes with non-essential shops reopening next week and the hospitality sector expected to restart next month.

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Mr Johnson said: “We’ve always recognised that this wasn’t going to be just a public health crisis but also a really serious crisis for our economy. Coronavirus is likely to hit a country like the UK very hard.

“We depend on services and human contact, the very things that coronavirus makes very difficult.