Sales of new cars in Britain plunged 97 percent in April, striking the lowest level since 1946, as coronavirus fallout slams the brakes on economic output, data revealed Tuesday.
Separate data showed that the UK service sector plummeted to another record low in April. It comes one day after British finance minister Rishi Sunak promised there would be no "cliff-edge" cut-off to the government's furlough scheme that is supporting millions of workers in the private sector.
Reacting to the COVID-19 outbreak, the UK Treasury has paid 6.3 million workers up to 80 percent of their salaries at a total cost of £8.0 billion ($9.8 billion, 9.1 billion euros).
It is part of an emergency package of measures by the government and the Bank of England, with the latter having slashed its main interest rate to a record-low 0.1 percent and pumped £200 billion more into the economy.
While the BoE is expected to sit tight on rates at its meeting this week, the central bank is set to slash its forecasts for British economic growth following the recent dire data.
"The Bank of England is likely to indicate that it is in 'wait and see' mode as the substantial stimulus that it announced in March is still being enacted, notably the buying of £200 billion of government and corporate bonds," said Howard Archer, chief economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club.
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