Every sector of UK economy is hit by Covid-19

...but experts say worst is now past

PUBS, theatres, housebuilders and car makers were among the worst hit after the coronavirus lockdown delivered an ‘unprecedented’ blow to the economy.

As official figures revealed that UK GDP shrunk by 20.4pc in April alone, a detailed breakdown showed the recordbreaking damage extended to almost every area of the economy.

Car manufacturing fell by 90.3pc, the hospitality sector plummeted 88.1pc and private housebuilding dropped 59.1pc, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, as factories and offices, pubs and building sites were shut and people were ordered to stay indoors.

One of the only bright spots was production of pharmaceutical products, which rose by 15.4pc month-on-month, as demand for medicines boomed.

But despite the economic turmoil – which dwarfed the 7pc drop in GDP during the 2008-09 financial crisis – economists said the UK was now ‘past the worst’ after the Government began to ease the lockdown in May. Overall, the ONS said the economy shrunk by 25pc from February to April – reducing its size to a level last seen in 2002. Azad Zangana,

senior European economist and strategist at Schroders, said that ‘as the UK tentatively takes further steps to re-open the economy, we expect the economic recovery to gather momentum’.

As pubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels were forced to close their doors to customers, another area badly hit by the lockdown was arts and entertainment, which plunged 39.7pc after cinemas, theatres and music venues shut.

At the same time, travel restrictions prompted a 28.8pc drop in the transportation and storage sector while the closure of building sites across the country caused construction output tumble by 40.1pc, including the fall in private housebuilding.

Manufacturing crumbled 24.3pc as factories were left with shortages of labour and demand. And health and social care fell by 20.9pc as private hospitals postponed elective surgeries and provided beds to struggling NHS trusts, while the education sector also contracted by 33.6pc as pupils stayed at home.

The lockdown restrictions also caused trade between the UK and the rest of the world to collapse, with imports and exports experiencing their biggest falls in two decades.

Export volumes fell by 17.7pc and imports by 26.5pc, from March to April. Exports of goods fell 8.7pc while imports fell 20.2pc. Andrew Wishart, an analyst at Capital Economics, said: ‘We are past the worst. But the recovery will be a drawn-out affair.’