Wet weather dampens the economic recovery - but showers should pass soon

April’s flatlining GDP figures are bad for the prime minister but they shouldn’t presage a return to last year’s recession

- JAMES MOORE

From “going gangbusters” to skidding on a wet road, Rishi Sunak’s economic recovery has been dampened by Britain’s record-breaking soggy spring. The unexpected vim shown by UK plc earlier this year vanished during April, for which early estimates of GDP growth released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday are dead-on zero.

What went wrong? A lot of it was down to bad weather, which halted many parts of the economy and saw construction decline by 1.4 per cent. Manufacturing was also mired in the red – production posted a 0.9 per cent decline – erasing the modest growth in the services sector.

April’s poor numbers did not come as a surprise, having been predicted by the Reuters poll of City economists. So score one for the forecasters, for a change. However, after the economy expanded by a surprisingly strong 0.6 per cent in the first part of the year, it can’t be seen as anything other than a disappointment.