12.08.2020
Commenting on today’s GDP data, Fhaheen Khan, Economist at Make UK, said:
“Today’s data confirms the extent of the economy’s plunge onto the rocks since the start of the year with the wreckage spread far and wide across all sectors. While industry is seeing some signs of a recovery in demand, with manufacturing production seeing its largest increase since records began in 1968, the sector has been through a profound shock and the impact of which will continue to be felt for some time to come, especially with major redundancies coming through the pipeline which is going to remove significant spending power from the economy.
“While some sectors of the economy are facing accelerated restructuring because of the pandemic, others which are fundamentally sound and which will be vital to our future growth in high value and high skill sectors will continue to be disproportionately impacted. We cannot afford to lose the talent in these sectors and, just as industry is having to be fleet on foot in a flexible approach to recovering and adapting, then Government may have to be equally flexible to extending job support schemes in the same way as our competitors. As we enter the next stage of dealing with the economic fallout from the pandemic nothing should be off the table.”