A leading British economic forecasting group, the EY Item Club, has predicted that the country's economy will shrink by eight percent this year and is unlikely to recover until 2023, APA reports quoting Sputnik.
“This is an undoubtedly challenging environment for businesses and forecasting is extremely difficult. We’ve made some significant adjustments to our GDP expectations compared to what the data told us just six weeks ago,” the group's chief economist Mark Gregory said.
The group's previous report, issued in April, predicted a 6.8% fall in output for 2020. However, after official figures showed Britain’s economy shrank by a record 20.4% that month, the EY Item Club made adjustments, downgrading the figure to eight percent.
It has also increased the size of the contraction expected in the second quarter of this year from 13% to 15%.
The report said that consumer spending could slump 17% in the second quarter and by 8.7% over the year as a whole, with investments falling by 13.7%.
On Monday, the United Kingdom started reopening retail stores after almost three months of closure, marking the country's return to pre-pandemic life in line with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's move to lift restrictions at the end of May.
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