Britain Starts To Rebound From The Pandemic With GDP Growth At A Healthy 2.1% In March 2021
Image Courtesy of Office for National Statistics
UK gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have grown by 2.1% in March 2021, the fastest monthly growth since August 2020, as schools in some parts of the UK reopened throughout the month.
The service sector grew by 1.9% in March 2021, with schools re-opening across England and Wales and retail trade sales continuing to show strength.
Output in the production sector grew by 1.8% in March 2021, as manufacturing grew for a second consecutive month, at 2.1%.
The construction sector grew by 5.8% in March 2021, driven by growth in both new work and repair and maintenance. The growth in construction (and indeed manufacturing) reflect businesses continuing to adapt, including development of COVID-19 secure environments to operate in.
March’s GDP is 5.9% below the levels seen in February 2020, and 1.1% below the initial recovery peak in October 2020.
Latest estimates also show only small revisions to GDP in January (now negative 2.5%, from negative 2.2%) and February (now growth of 0.7%, from 0.4%).
The manufacturing sub-sector was the largest contributor to growth, growing 2.1%, its fastest pace since July 2020 when it grew 7.4%.
Eleven out of the thirteen manufacturing sub-sectors grew with the largest positive contribution coming from the manufacturing of machinery and equipment (which grew by 8.3%) and manufacturing of computer, electronic and optical products (which grew by 5.5%).
Mining and quarrying output grew by 2.5% in March 2021 following two months of contraction; mainly because of the extraction of oil and gas picking up.
