Bobby Kennedy was right: GDP is a poor measure of a nation's health | Larry Elliott
by Larry Elliott from on (#5CYGT)
Economically, 2020 was a terrible year for the UK, but the real damage will not be easy to assess
Next month it will be official. Figures will provide the first estimate of how much the UK economy shrank by in 2020. Depending on what happened when lockdown restrictions were temporarily eased in December, the likelihood is that there was a fall of about 10%.
That will be the signal for all sorts of comparisons. Germany, which has already released data, contracted by 5% last year. Numbers for the US are not yet out but will probably show the world's biggest economy suffered a 4%-5% drop in gross domestic product. China grew by about 2%.
Related: 'How many more lockdowns can we go through?' Bosses on Covid double-dip recession
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