By Chathushka Perera
LONDON, UK (CWBN)_ According to the Lloyds Bank business barometer, confidence in the UK took a serious low yet again this year triggered by the possibilities of a no-deal Brexit, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. The last low was recorded in July.
As per the bank’s records, since the local economy began to grow following the end of the recession in 2009, business began to gather confidence over the next seven years with slip ups in 2012 and 2016, the latter was triggered by the uncertainties of Brexit.
Confidence has since kept a relative downward trend, recording negative 21 in November, however, a slight hike was noted on the second week when Pfizer-BioNTech announced that its vaccine candidate had registered a 90 percent efficacy in preventing COVID-19.
Meanwhile this year, the economic growth rates also tracked downward by 2.2 percent over the first quarter and 20.4 percent on the second, before recovering on the third by 9.6%.
Nonetheless experts projected that the growth in the third quarter would not be replicated in the fourth, due to the reemploying of lockdown measures to counter the resurgence of the pandemic. Moreover, it is also expected that the effects of the decline reported in 2020, would be felt well into 2021.
Edited by Elishya Perera
