UK economy grew by 0.4% in August

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK’s GDP rose by 0.4% in August.

This left the economy 0.8% smaller than in February 2020, a month prior to the initial Coronavirus lockdown.

GDP plummeted by 9.7% across 2020, matching 1921’s sharp deflationary recession while the economy reeled from the cost of the First World War.

On Tuesday the International Monetary Fund warned that Britain was more vulnerable to sharp increase in inflation, and that it could be the longest to recover of all the G7 nations. It is also thought that The Bank of England will be the first central bank to increase interest rates since the beginning of the pandemic.

Commenting on today’s figures, the ONS’s director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “The economy picked up in August as bars, restaurants and festivals benefited from the first month without COVID-19 restrictions in England. This was offset by falls in health activity with fewer people visiting GPs and less testing and tracing. However, later and slightly weaker data from a number of industries now mean we estimate the economy fell a little overall in July.”