Record slump
The UK economy shrank at the fastest monthly rate on record in April as the coronavirus lockdown hit demand and activity in all sectors.
Output in the UK fell by 20.4 per cent in April, compared with the previous month, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
‘April’s fall in GDP is the biggest the UK has ever seen, more than three times larger than last month and almost 10 times larger than the steepest pre-covid-19 fall,’ said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS. ‘In April the economy was around 25 per cent smaller than in February.’
The figure is worse than anything seen during the financial crash. In its latest assessment, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned that the UK is likely to be the hardest hit by coronavirus among all the major economies.
Although UK parcel volumes are up 31 per cent, UK-addressed letter volumes are down 33 per cent (308 million items) and revenue has fallen 23 per cent. Overall, UK revenue was down £22m in our April trading period alone. This means that for every one per cent of letter volume decline, we have to grow parcel volumes by over two per cent just to stand still.
‘The underlying impact of letter decline in our network is a significant impact on the business and something we need to continue to review’, said national service delivery director, Ricky McAulay. ‘We need to look at costs now, but importantly coming out of this pandemic, we need to see if we can accelerate our strategy.’
