Most deaths AND worst hit to GDP in Europe - Johnson really screwed up Covid-19

[muriel_volestrangler]

UK economy likely to suffer worst Covid-19 damage, says OECD

Britain’s economy is likely to suffer the worst damage from the Covid-19 crisis of any country in the developed world, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

A slump in the UK’s national income of 11.5% during 2020 will outstrip the falls in France, Italy, Spain and Germany, the Paris-based thinktank said.

Germany’s decline in national income (GDP) will be 6.6% this year while Spain’s GDP will fall by 11.1%, Italy’s by 11.3 and France’s by 11.4%.

Highlighting the task awaiting the UK government as it seeks to ease the lockdown, the OECD ruled out a V-shaped recovery for the global economy, saying the path back to previous levels of activity would be hampered by long-lasting effects of the pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/10/uk-economy-likely-to-suffer-worst-covid-19-damage-says-oecd

USA 7.3% drop, by the way; and Sweden 6.7%, for comparison with the most "laissez faire" approach.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

In deaths per million population, Belgium is the one sizeable country still with more than us (830 to 602), though their recording system is said to be more comprehensive than ours, so we may be worse than them. I also heard on Radio 4 this morning that Spain is now openly fiddling its death figures (it only counts as a covid-19 death if it's reported within 24 hours), so it is possible they are still worse than us. The UK has the most total deaths in Europe, anyway. It's even possible that the weekly deaths in the UK will soon be as many as the combined total for the EU now - the expert on Radio 4 thought they're about 25 a day fewer at the moment, but the EU figure is falling faster than the UK's.