MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK economy contracted 20,4% in April, according to Stats Office

All areas of the economy were hit, though “pubs, education, health and car sales all giving the biggest contributions to this historic fall.” Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic

The UK economy shrank by 20.4% in April, according to figures outlined by the Office for National Statistics on Friday morning.

“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,” Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, said, according to the BBC.

According to Athow, virtually all areas of the economy were hit, though “pubs, education, health and car sales all giving the biggest contributions to this historic fall.”

Athow added that the UK's trade with the rest of the world declined due to the coronavirus pandemic. Food and beverage services were reported as one of the “largest falling services industries due to restaurants and pubs being closed for the duration of April 2020.”

The UK put lockdown measures into place on March 23, to stem the spread of the virus. COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has infected more than 292,000 in the United Kingdom and killed more than 41,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The lockdown measures allowed people in England to leave their homes for only essential activities: exercise, buying food, medical appointments, and travel to work if deemed essential.

At the end of May, new measures were introduced lifting some of these restrictions.