It is not entirely correct to say that the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the United Kingdom into an economic crisis, because the country has not yet emerged from the 2008 crisis.
This is stated in the edition “Foreign Policy”.
Twelve years ago, Britain’s economy suffered severe damage and the wounds of that financial crisis have not healed to this day. The United Kingdom has suffered one of the largest economic downturns in the G7 countries. In such circumstances, Brexit only aggravates the situation, at the same time allowing the government to divert public attention from the inability to solve strategic problems.
The United Kingdom’s financial economy never recovered from the 2008 crisis. Production growth has practically stalled, and the post-industrial northern regions continue to lag behind the southern ones. The coronavirus pandemic has clearly caught Britain at the most inopportune moment, writes FP. In the second quarter of 2020, economic activity declined by about one-fifth. Prolonged quarantines and dependence on the hard-hit retail, leisure and hospitality sectors have played a tragic role.
In the coming months, the state support program will be terminated, and the country will be swept by a wave of layoffs and bankruptcies.
“So the prospects for a speedy recovery look bleak. And that’s even without considering the risk of new waves of COVID-19, a disorderly Brexit without a deal, or a tax hike to manage its massive $2.6 trillion debt”, – the report says.
Britain will seriously lag behind other countries in the recovery process and will return to pre-crisis levels of gross domestic product around 2022.