UK GDP suffers largest contraction on record

First estimates of the UK's GDP in 2020 reveal that the country's economy contracted by 9.9 percent in comparison to 2019. That marks the largest drop on record and as this infographic shows, by some margin. As stated by the Office for National Statistics: "This release captures the direct effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the government measures taken to reduce transmission of the virus."

A reminder though that this is an initial estimate and as covered by the ONS in their release: "We have faced an increased number of challenges in producing quarterly estimates of UK GDP for Quarter 4 2020. As a result of these challenges, (these) GDP estimates are subject to more uncertainty than usual and are likely to have larger than usual revisions in subsequent releases."