Rishi Sunak has slammed the BBC’s “inaccurate commentary” after it refused to publish figures showing that there was a faster recovery from coronavirus in the UK economy than in Germany and France.
The revised figures revealing that the UK outperformed both countries in recovering from the pandemic were said to surprise the Prime Minister.
Asking why the news had not “found its way to the top of the BBC homepage”, Sunak also told The Sun that the public broadcaster “did cover two years of what now turns out to be a completely inaccurate commentary on the British economy”, the Daily Mail reports.
He added: “The narrative that people have built up over the last couple of years is completely and utterly wrong.
“Keir Starmer and Labour have tried time and time again to talk down our country, to talk down our economy. And I’m delighted that the numbers will show they’re completely and utterly wrong.”
Figures indicate that by halfway through this year, GDP was 1.8 percent larger than pre-Covid levels. This suggests that it is £50billion more than preceding estimates.
Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer said: “We know that the economy recovered faster from the pandemic than anyone previously thought – and data out today once again proves the doubters wrong.”
The Office for National Statistics had previously estimated that the economy was still 0.2 percent lower than pre-pandemic, placing the UK at the bottom of the table amidst major advanced economies.
However, the revised figures imply that Britain has outrun Germany, which grew by 0.2 percent after the same period, and France which was up by 1.7 percent.
But lagging well behind the US – which has seen a 6.1 percent bounce back – the UK’s recovery is still in the lower half of the G7 pack, with Canada, Japan and Italy also stronger.
GDP data for previous years was published earlier this month which led to wide anticipation for yesterday’s ONS upgrade.
By the end of 2021, the economy was already larger than pre-pandemic levels as the data showed it had done better in 2020 and 2021 than first thought.
The UK economy grew by 4.3 percent, rather than 4.1 percent in 2022, yesterday’s data shows.
GDP also increased by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, revised up from 0.1 percent. And it grew by an unrevised 0.2 percent in the second quarter.
The resulting revisions left the economy 1.8 percent larger than pre-pandemic levels by the end of June rather than 0.2 percent smaller.
It was pointed out by economists, however, that the current outlook for growth remained slow-moving.
Yesterday, unconnected published figures indicated a six-month low in the number of approved mortgages, which fell to 45,400 last month.
Recession fears were raised recently following business surveys suggesting that the economy may have shrunk in the current third quarter.
Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the upgraded GDP data “does not change the big picture that the economy has lagged behind all other G7 countries aside from Germany and France”.
Investec economist Sandra Horsfield said: “We continue to forecast that the UK economy will enter a recession over the winter months.”
