Economy News

Britain cannot run its COVID-19 jobs protection scheme indefinitely and needs to start tapering it down as people slowly return to work, environment minister George Eustice said on Friday.

British business confidence fell to its lowest since the 2008 financial crisis in May, according to a survey for Lloyds Bank which contrasts with other surveys which have shown a small improvement since the initial shock of the coronavirus lockdown.

British car production could slump this year to the lowest level in decades after the coronavirus pandemic forced factories to close and hit demand, according to an industry body.

Britain's economy is unlikely to recover fully from the "searing experience" of the coronavirus in the next two to three years, Bank of England policymaker Michael Saunders warned in the gloomiest medium-term assessment to date from a UK policymaker.

Nearly half of businesses in Britain which have temporarily suspended their operations because of the coronavirus lockdown are unsure when they will restart trading, a survey by the country's official statistics office showed on Thursday.

British employers turned a bit less pessimistic about hiring and investment this month as the government moved to relax its coronavirus lockdown of much of the economy, according to a survey published by a recruiting industry body.

Britain's economy is at risk of taking longer to recover from the impact of the coronavirus than in the main scenario published by the Bank of England earlier this month, Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday.

Some 8.4 million employees in Britain are covered by a state wage subsidy scheme for temporarily laid-off workers, up 400,000 from last week, finance minister Rishi Sunak said as he prepares to tell companies how they will share some of the cost.

Britons spent a record 1.2 billion pounds online buying groceries during a four week period in April and May as they shunned supermarket trips during the coronavirus lockdown, industry data showed on Wednesday.