World-beating Tory economy

[Old Greg]

GDP down 20.4% in Q2.

[Old Greg]

GDP – International Comparisons: Key Economic Indicators – House of Commons Library



Some poor intern is going to have to mess with the y axis now.

[darmstadt]

Not Good:

Contracting 20.4% from April to June, the UK’s Q2 performance makes it far and away the worst hit country among its G7 peers. It’s not even close. That decline is more than double the hit taken by Germany and the US, and 6.6 percent points higher than the next nation (France, which suffered a 13.8% drop).

It is further economic evidence of the bungling nature of Boris Johnson and his government’s approach to the covid-19 pandemic, one that has cost more lives and jobs than any other nation in Europe. And that’s in a country that doesn’t have to worry about physical borders.

However as Sunak has said:

“I’ve said before that hard times were ahead, and today’s figures confirm that hard times are here. Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will.

“But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity.”

There has been a rise since June, 8.7%, but sadly that has been mainly in the accommodation and food services sector:

[original PM]

GDP down 20.4% in Q2.

That was the quarter when no one was allowed to leave the house and only essential shops were open?

I mean are you trying to make a point or just alerting us to the fact that conditions under lock down are not condusive to a growing economy?

[SimonMac]

So an economy that is heavily focused on services takes the biggest hit when all services are closed for months?!

[Old Greg]

That was the quarter when no one was allowed to leave the house and only essential shops were open?

I mean are you trying to make a point or just alerting us to the fact that conditions under lock down are not condusive to a growing economy?

So an economy that is heavily focused on services takes the biggest hit when all services are closed for months?!

That's the spirit, chin up!

[original PM]

That's the spirit, chin up!

What do you mean chin up?

Do you want to do a little experiment?

Open up a little shop, does not matter what you sell and then close it for 3 months and come back and tell us how much you sold in the 3 months you were closed.

[Paddy]

That was the quarter when no one was allowed to leave the house and only essential shops were open?

I mean are you trying to make a point or just alerting us to the fact that conditions under lock down are not condusive to a growing economy?

So an economy that is heavily focused on services takes the biggest hit when all services are closed for months?!

Other countries had stricter lock-down than the UK be are not in recession. Financial services have defiantly not been closed during lock-down, where did you get that misinformation?

The Tories have messed the economy up big-time.

[edison]

That was the quarter when no one was allowed to leave the house and only essential shops were open?

I mean are you trying to make a point or just alerting us to the fact that conditions under lock down are not condusive to a growing economy?

So an economy that is heavily focused on services takes the biggest hit when all services are closed for months?!

I don't think anyone would expect anything other than a sharp contraction in the economy in the last quarter. They key thing here (and it is only one quarter's data) is that the performance appears so much worse than our main competitors. Let's see what Q3 and Q4 bring before we can really start to gauge what is happening. Given the furlough scheme is ending soon, I wouldn't bank on there being too much good economic news for the rest of this year.

Then we have Brexit at the start of 2021...

[Old Greg]

Other countries had stricter lock-down than the UK be are not in recession. Financial services have defiantly not been closed during lock-down, where did you get that misinformation?

The Tories have messed the economy up big-time.

Here is a bigger selection of countries. Still going to need adjustment to the y axis when adding in the UK.