UK September Growth Rate Limited to 1.1%... Concerns Over COVID-19 Resurgence

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced on the 12th (local time) that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for September increased by 1.1% compared to the previous month. This marks five consecutive months of positive growth, but it falls short of the market forecast of 1.5%.

In April, immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK's monthly growth rate recorded -19.5%. Since then, it turned positive at 2.7% in May, continuing its growth. However, the growth rate has been decreasing from 9.1% in June to 6.3% in July, 2.2% in August, and 1.1% in September.

As of September, the size of the UK economy remains 8.2% smaller compared to February, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, with the second lockdown measures starting from the 5th for four weeks across all regions of England to respond to the resurgence of COVID-19, there are expectations that economic recovery will be difficult in the near future.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stated, "We can see that our economy recovered during the summer but began to slow down again as we entered autumn," adding, "Due to the measures introduced to prevent the spread of the virus, economic growth is expected to slow further."

Earlier, the Bank of England revised its growth forecasts for this year and next year downward to -11% and 7.25%, respectively, compared to previous projections.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.