UK economy could shrink by 35% with 2m job losses, warns OBR

Unemployment could hit 10% by end of spring with public borrowing rising at fastest rate since WWII

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Britain’s economy could shrink by 35% this spring and unemployment soar by more than 2 million due to the coronavirus crisis, the government’s independent economics forecaster has warned.

In a stark assessment of the economic fallout from Covid-19 as lockdown measures bring much of the country to a standstill, the Office for Budget Responsibility said that gross domestic product (GDP) could plunge by more than a third in the second quarter of the year and by 13% for 2020 as a whole.

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