Gross domestic product fell by 5.8% in March alone as the country saw its biggest quarterly fall since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.

Today’s figures are just the start of the expected covid-19 slump.

They reveal that the 2.0% fall in the first quarter of this year was the largest drop in GDP since the last quarter of 2008 – when the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide financial collapse. The March drop is the worst since ONS records began in 1997.

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