Most businesses are closed and no one’s been out for two months. So, yes, of course the economy has shrunk and consumer spending has plummeted; although, given the regularity with which deliveries of stuff arrive at our house, we’re doing our bit to prop it up. The difference here is that this is a man-made rather than a natural recession. Governments (and the virus, of course) ordered the shut-down, and they’ll have to take responsibility for the start-up. Which means my view-of-the-economic-future glass is still more half-full than empty.
“UK slips into recession as economy contracts 0.1% in December”
This week’s big economic and bad election news is that we are, or certainly have been, officially in a recession. You may not have thought you were, or you may have thought you have been for some time, as we and its effects are all different.