Bank holiday blues hit UK economy, but by less than feared

By Andy Bruce and William James

LONDON -Britain’s economic system contracted by lower than feared in June, when a an additional financial institution vacation for Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee had been anticipated to exert a giant drag, though output for the second quarter as an entire nonetheless contracted.

The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics stated gross home product fell by 0.6% in June, the largest contraction since January 2021 however nonetheless far much less extreme than the 1.3% drop predicted by the consensus of economists polled by Reuters.

The ONS stated companies output fell by 0.5% in June 2022, which was the principle driver of the autumn in GDP.

The additions of financial institution holidays in June subtracted two working days from the month.

For the second quarter as an entire, the economic system contracted by 0.1%, in contrast with forecasts for a 0.3% drop.

Regardless of the higher than anticipated tone of the info, it nonetheless pointed to rising weak point amongst consumer-facing sectors of the economic system, like retail and eating places, which might be most uncovered to a worsening value of dwelling disaster.

Whereas the economic system in June was estimated to be 0.9% above its pre-COVID pandemic degree in February 2020, the ONS stated consumer-facing companies output was 4.9% under.