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British economy grows as hospitality firms bounce back from lock downs

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3 years ago

August 12, 2021

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The British economy grew by 4.8 per cent in the second-quarter of 2021, as lock downs lifted, getting people back into pubs, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by a further one per cent in June, creating five consecutive months of growth.

The economy also sped up from 0.6 per cent growth in May, the ONS said.

Lockdown restrictions slowly eased through much of the quarter.

Outdoor dining was opened again in April, the first month of the quarterly data included and further restrictions were lifted in May.

Another major contributor to the growth was people visiting general practitioners across the country.

The number of people seeing their doctors for non-COVID complaints rose, increasing the consumption of health services by 5.1 per cent in the second quarter.

This was also helped by government spending on Test and Trace and the vaccination programme, the ONS said.

The deputy national statistician for economic statistics, Mr Jonathan Athow said the UK economy has continued to rebound strongly, with hospitality benefiting from the first full month of indoor dining.

He said this happened while spending on advertising that was boosted by the reopening of many services.

“GDP is still around 2 percentage points, below its pre-pandemic peak,’’ he said.

Energy usage dropped as summer arrived in Britain, the ONS said.

Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, had expected GDP to grow by 0.6 per cent in June and 4.7 per cent across the quarter.

The Bank of England, meanwhile, had predicted growth of 5 per cent across the quarter.

However, the surge of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the boom in the number of people self-isolating, undermined some of the growth.

Nevertheless, the data marked a major improvement from the first months of the year.

In the first quarter, the economy contracted by 1.6 per cent as it battled with prolonged lock downs.

The data covered the period to the end of March, so did not include the reopening of outdoor hospitality in April and indoor hospitality a month later.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “I know there are still challenges to overcome, but I feel confident in the strength of the UK economy and the resilience of the British people.’’