The UK economy shrank by almost 10% in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced.

According to the latest figures, UK GDP contracted by 9.9% in 2020 - the largest annual fall on record.

In December 2020, the economy grew by 1.2% after declining by 2.3% in November.

Although the economy started to recover in the final three months of last year, it still remained 7.8% lower compared to the same period in 2019, the ONS said.

Alpesh Paleja, lead economist at the Confederation of British Industry, said:

“The UK economy grew slightly towards the end of the last year, as a second lockdown in November was partly offset by a pick-up in GDP over December. But with restrictions tightening again in the New Year, we’ll likely see further dips in activity.
 
“Getting the pandemic under control is critical to our recovery, and speedy rollout of vaccines gives us some hope.

"But until we can end the stop-start cycle of lockdowns, businesses will need support to continue in parallel with restrictions.”

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