The British economy is on course to record the deepest coronavirus-related slump among the world’s seven leading industrial economies after official figures Wednesday showed it shrinking by a fifth in the second quarter alone.
In a quarterly update that is worse than anything since records began in 1955, the Office for National Statistics said the British economy contracted by 20.4% in the April to June period from the previous three-month period.
Britain’s recession is deeper than those recorded by comparable economies in Europe, notably Germany, France and Italy, or that of the United States.
The other Group of Seven economies, Japan and Canada, have yet to post second-quarter numbers but no economist thinks they will be as bad as the U.K.’s.
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