Brexit had already damaged Britain's economy. Now coronavirus could sink it | Gaby Hinsliff
The economy was flatlining before the coronavirus outbreak and now we are nearing the moment of maximum danger
When this outbreak first began, all the talk was of a sharp but mercifully short economic sting in the tail. The downturn triggered by putting everyday life on hold to halt the infection should, we were told, be V-shaped: a shock, but one from which we'd soon bounce back. Like many comforting predictions in the early days of this pandemic, that is beginning to look alarmingly over-confident.
The first problem with picking up exactly where we left off is that where we left off was already in trouble. Today's GDP figures, covering the three-month period to February when the coronavirus had started to nibble at the travel and tourism industry but we were weeks away from lockdown, show economic growth virtually flatlining at 0.1% overall and falling in the final four weeks. Far from enjoying some mythical "Boris bounce", we may have been teetering on the verge of a recession, as business confidence dried up in the face of a potentially hard Brexit. The fear is that the economic aftermath of this crisis, like the virus itself, might be toughest on those with pre-existing conditions - including otherwise thriving western countries choosing this moment in history to shoot themselves in the foot.
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