Comparing the UK economy with its pre-pandemic size has become an almost totemic way of highlighting its sluggish performance post-COVID. It has certainly been a gift for Opposition politicians and in particular when - in September last year - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) produced evidence that the UK was the only economy in the G7 group that remained smaller than it was in February 2020.
However, today brought news that the UK economy actually fared better in the post-COVID period than previously thought.
The ONS unveiled a series of revisions for past GDP growth - affecting both 2020 and 2021. It said that the UK economy contracted by 10.4% in the main pandemic year of 2020 - less worse than the 11% contraction previously reported. And it said UK GDP grew by 8.7% in 2021 - considerably better than the previously reported growth of 7.6%…
Carry these revisions across to the latest data though, and it means that, rather than being at the bottom of the G7, the UK’s economic recovery post-pandemic was well ahead of Germany and not far behind those achieved by France and Italy.
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