2 years for economy to recover

Economy will take two years to bounce back The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has warned that the economy will take another two years to recover from the pandemic. The think-tank said that GDP would expand by only 3.4% in 2021, down from an earlier forecast of 5.9%. It blamed “uncertainty about the path of the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines against strains.” Hande Kucuk, a deputy director at the institute, said that by 2025 the economy would still be about 6% lower than it would have been had COVID-19 never hit. The NIESR added that people would hold on to their savings because of fears about the economic outlook. Meanwhile, unemployment would rise as the job retention scheme ends. The jobless rate is expected to hit 7.5%, or 2.5m.