Jeremy Hunt blasts anti-Britain gloomsters as GDP bounces again sooner than Euro

Jeremy Hunt has hailed news at present that the UK economic system has grown a lot quick than believed post-pandemic.

The UK acquired a serious increase this morning as revised figures present the economic system recovered from the pandemic even sooner than Germany, France and Japan.

Until at present, Britain was believed to be the one G7 economic system that was nonetheless smaller than earlier than Covid.

However the Office for National Statistics has sharply amended its estimate for the dimensions of the economic system, suggesting Britain’s restoration from the Covid-19 pandemic could also be a lot nearer to that of different large international locations than beforehand believed.

The ONS stated Britain’s economic system within the fourth quarter of 2021 was in actual fact 0.6 p.c bigger than the ultimate quarter of 2019 – a lot increased than earlier figures saying it was 1.2 p.c smaller.

Annual development for 2021 was revised up a major 1.1 proportion factors to eight.7 p.c, whereas the crash attributable to the 2020 lockdown was revised down by 0.6 factors.

In their final set of knowledge, the ONS stated that within the three months to the tip of June 2023, Britain’s economic system was nonetheless 0.2 p.c smaller than pre-pandemic, resulting in mass criticism of the Government’s financial programme.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stated the news “shows that once again those determined to talk down the British economy have been proved wrong”.

“There are many battles still to win, most of all against inflation so we can ease cost of living pressures of families. But if we stick to the plan we can look forward to healthy growth which according to the IMF will be faster than Germany, France, and Italy in the long term.”

The new revision provides No. 10 and Rishi Sunak a serious increase, particularly given ‘increased economic growth’ is considered one of his 5 key pledges.

The ONS has stated the revision upwards is as a result of they’ve “richer data from our annual surveys and administrative data”.

“We are now able to measure costs incurred by businesses directly and we can adjust for prices at a far more detailed level.”

The news means Britain is not a worldwide outlier in financial development post-pandemic.

It additionally gives a lift for Brexit, given many had accused Britain’s departure from the bloc of being the reason for the UK’s incapacity to regain the dimensions of its pre-pandemic economic system.

Economist Julian Jessop requested: “Maybe Brexit Britain isn’t such a laggard after all?”

However commerce skilled David Henig stated that such an enormous revision to official statistics now raises questions “concerning the reliability of ONS knowledge” going ahead.