UK economy hit hard during March, shrinking by record 5.8% amid coronavirus pandemic

UK’s economy sees a record decline of  5.8 percent in March from February as the coronavirus crisis escalated and the government ordered a shutdown of much of the country to stop the spread of the virus, official data showed on Wednesday.

In the first three months of the year, gross domestic product contracted by 2.0% from the last three months of 2019, the Office for National Statistics said.

That was the largest quarter-on-quarter fall since the end of 2008, during the depths of the financial crisis, though slightly smaller than the average 2.5% forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

It was also a smaller fall than a 3.8% slump in GDP in the euro zone in the January-March period although several countries in the single currency area began their lockdowns before Britain.

Figures for April are likely to show a bigger fall in British economic output than in March because the entire month was spent under lockdown by British companies and consumers.