the impact of the coronavirus pandemic
on the country's finances was laid bare
today
as official figures show the economy saw
its biggest drop since extreme weather
wrecked economic activity
300 years ago the office for national
statistics said that in 2020 the total
value of goods and services produced in
the uk known as gdp
fell by 9.9
there was growth of one percent in the
last three months of the year
which means the uk isn't technically now
in recession
but with lockdown expected to stay in
place until early spring
experts say the hit to the economy will
continue at least until the effects of
the vaccination programme kick in
here's our economics editor faisal islam
cupid's arrows being felt rather less
than normal what should be a bumper time
for florists
such as susan in stevenage it caps the
toughest of years
i'm not even going to do valentine's day
i can't pre-order hundreds of roses and
then not sell
been a really hard year um i've just had
to sit and watch my weddings one by one
postponed to the following year what am
i going to do if i can't do this
and if my weddings keep postponing if
they start cancelling
i don't think i'll be here 2022.
susan's just one of the stories that
made 2020 the wrong sort of economic
history
even compared to other large shocks
depressions and wars
last year the worst on record in fact in
over three centuries
what's clear is right now many families
and businesses are experiencing hardship
that's why we've put in place a
comprehensive plan for jobs to support
people through this crisis
and we will set out the next stage of
our economic response
at our budget in early march the
pandemic
and the shutdowns did hit a uk economy
dependent on services
more than other nations we've had the
worst death toll of any
european country but we've also had that
worst economic crisis
of any major economy as well we really
need public spending
to be directed into the right places not
have this level of waste and
mismanagement
of public funds this afternoon the
chancellor chaired a meeting of the
biggest economies finance ministers the
g7
different ways of measuring health and
education explained some of the uk
underperformance here
so the numbers for 2020 as a whole
understandably stark but that's
history now what matters is what's
happening in the economy
right now and you can build a picture
with alternative statistics on
road traffic for example down 47
for cars on the same period last year
online job adverts they're down around a
fifth
number of people on the high street the
footfall well that's down
two thirds across the united kingdom
with london the east midlands and
scotland the
hardest hit but not all of that spending
has gone the bank of england's internal
credit card and debit card data
show a fall of 24 in sales
with much shifting online on the high
street here in stevenage brian's record
shop has tried to shift online
with help from government support and an
understanding landlord
how much longer can you put up with this
we're 60
down on our overall revenue for the shop
i mean at least for us we don't have to
throw away our stock
you know people will come back and that
stuff will have the same value so
i think in retail terms we're better off
than
in pubs and restaurants i think the pubs
and restaurants in the old town have
been badly hit
the vaccine rollout and eventual lifting
of restrictions should lead to an
economic bounce back from the 2020 pain
2021 could yet be a rather better
sounding record
well faisal is with me now uh just on
that point faisal is the picture likely
to get any rosier this year
well a fall of this historic magnitude
is always going to have
implications for years to come but it is
also
history it reflects what happened last
year in 2020 it reflects what
viewers will have seen in their high
streets and in their offices
during the peak of the lockdown but i
think going forward
it clearly depends on two balancing acts
for the government
the balancing act over lifting
restrictions and we expect
the prime minister to make an
announcement on that in the final week
of
february on the road out of the
restrictions and it may take
weeks or months in a phased way and then
the week after that at the budget in
early march the chancellor will have the
balancing act
of how much support to offer to the
economy for
jobs and also for business cash flow how
to keep that going but also
balancing that with what he told me was
the need to be open and honest with the
public
about the some of the measures required
to rein in the record level of
borrowing so that will mean in the
immediate year that support will
continue
that there'll be money put into the
economy but going on from that
in years to come some forms of tax rise
perhaps green taxes online taxes
freezing of the income tax thresholds
but the hope is
if you can get this sequence right that
you could see quite a rapid recovery
in the second half of 2021. faisal thank
you
our economics editor faisal islam there