Britain's economy shrank in the first quarter at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis as the country went into coronavirus lockdown, data showed Wednesday, prompting the government to warn of a "significant" recession.
Gross domestic product - the combined value of produced goods and services in the UK economy - contracted by two percent in the January-March period after zero growth in the three months to December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The nation's second-quarter contraction is meanwhile expected to be far steeper than the first.
In more grim news, UK output dived by a record 5.8 percent in March from the previous month. Britain implemented its COVID-19 lockdown - which is only just starting to be eased - on March 23.
"A recession is defined technically as two quarters of decline in GDP. We've seen one here with only a few days of impact from the virus," finance minister Rishi Sunak said in response to the gloomy data.
"So it is now very likely that the UK economy will face a significant recession this year and we are in the middle of that as we speak."
Activity during the period was impacted also by Brexit, or Britain's long-awaited departure from the European Union, on January 31.
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