The UK is no longer a global economic outlier after a huge revision to its post-pandemic economic performance by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
GDP, the size of the country’s economy, climbed back above pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021, the ONS said last week – much higher than previously thought.
The ONS originally said the economy was still 1.2% smaller than its pre-lockdown size in the final three months of 2021, but now says GDP was 0.6% higher than before the pandemic.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the revisions show that the UK economy “had the fastest recovery from the pandemic of any large European economy, thanks to decisions such as furlough that protected millions of jobs.”
“For that growth to continue, we now need to halve inflation”, he added.
However, the revision came as separate figures suggested that the manufacturing sector shrank last month at its fastest rate since the pandemic. The latest statistical release also showed that the average UK house price fell in August at the sharpest annual rate seen in 14 years.
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