A decline in car manufacturing and a number of storms helped to further contract the UK’s economy despite a recovery in tourism trade as Covid restrictions were eased. Consequently, gross domestic product (GDP) is now 1.5 percent above what it was pre-pandemic.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said GDP increased by just 0.1 percent, falling short of the 0.3 percent growth predicted by most analysts.
Growth has slowed sharply ever since January when GDP jumped by 0.8 percent as people returned to normal life, following a surge in Omicron rates last December.
Though tourism showed positive growth, the economy was dragged down by a fall in production, which slipped by 0.6 percent, while construction was also down by 0.1 percent.
Disruption to global supply chains and shortages of key parts were blamed as the reasons for why car producers saw a slump in manufacturing.
Activity in the sector fell 0.4 percent on the month, driven by a 5.4 percent drop in the manufacture of transport equipment and a 4.3 percent fall in computer, electronic and optical products.
Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin were blamed by some sectors, including the building industry, restaurants and takeaways, for causing disruption.
Elsewhere, travel agencies and tour operators reported a 33.1 percent growth as the easing of Covid restrictions encouraged more Brits to travel abroad.
Hotels also recorded a 23 percent rise in activity as more people travelled across the UK, contributing to the first month of positive growth for hotels and camping grounds since last August.
“The Government must provide urgent financial support, through the expansion of the energy bills rebate scheme, to include small firms and energy intensive businesses, and an SME energy price cap to protect smaller firms from some of the price increases.”
The Institute of International Finance has predicted Moscow’s economy to shrink by 15 percent in 2022, followed by a three percent contraction the following year.
For 2020, the World Bank estimated Russia to have a GDP of $1.48 trillion (£1.14 trillion).
In comparison, the UK’s was slightly larger – for the same period – ranked at $2.71 trillion (£2.08 trillion).
Heading into 2022 the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) ranked the UK as the fifth largest global economy – second biggest in Europe behind Germany.