MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th November, 2020) The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted that the UK's economy will contract by 11.3 percent in 2020 amid the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest single-year fall in output in more than three centuries, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday.
"The OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] forecast the economy will contract this year by 11.3 percent, the largest fall in output for more than 300 years. As the restrictions are eased, they expect the economy to start recovering, growing by 5.5 percent next year, 6.6 percent in 2022, then 2.3, 1.7, and 1.8 percent in the following years," Sunak said while presenting the government's spending review to parliament.
Citing the OBR's figures, Sunak said that it was likely the UK economy would not reach pre-coronavirus levels until the end of 2022.
"Even with growth returning, our economic output is not expected to return to pre-crisis levels until the fourth quarter of 2022, and the economic damage is likely to be lasting. Long-term scarring means in 2025, the economy will be about 3 percent smaller than expected in the March budget" the chancellor said.
Earlier in his statement, Sunak said that the government has allocated 280 billion Pounds ($373 billion) to help the country through the ongoing pandemic.
