What does a recession mean for the UK?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported the economy grew in June by 8.7 percent, following on 2.4 percent of growth in May.
However, UK GDP fell by 20.4 percent between April and June.
The ONS said: “But despite this, the level of output did not fully recover from the record falls seen across March and April 2020, and has reduced by 17.2 percent compared with February 2020, before the full impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”
This is the biggest quarterly nosedive in the UK economy since ONS records began in 1955.
The ONS said the slump is indicative of the toll coronavirus has taken on the nation.
Compared with the same quarter a year ago, the UK economy fell by 21.7 percent.
The Treasury’s official financial forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has previously estimated the UK GDP could fall by a huge 35 percent in the second quarter of this year (between April and June).