According to a release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK economy grew by 2.3% in April. This is the fastest monthly growth rate since July 2020 in the aftermath of the first national lockdown. On 12 April, Step 2 of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown was implemented, which allowed non-essential shops, outdoor hospitality venues and personal care premises to re-open. Despite the strong performance of the economy in the Spring, April’s GDP was still 3.7% below its level in February 2020, before the pandemic first took hold in the UK.

The easing of Covid-19 restrictions in April primarily benefitted businesses in the services sector. Services output grew by 3.4% in April 2021 but remained 4.1% below its pre-pandemic level of February 2020. Consumer facing services grew by 12.7% as coronavirus restrictions eased throughout April, with levels recovering to their initial recovery peak in October 2020, as Figure 3 shows.

Retail sales volumes grew sharply in April 2021 with a monthly increase of 9.2%, reflecting the re-opening of all non-essential retail from 12 April in England and Wales and from 26 April in Scotland. Non-food stores provided the largest contribution to the monthly growth in April 2021 sales volumes, aided by strong increases of 69.4% and 25.3% in clothing stores and other non-food stores respectively. More detail can be found in the Retail sales, Great Britain: April 2021.

Accommodation service activities grew by 68.6% as caravan parks and holiday lets picked up, while food and beverage service activities grew by 39.0% as pubs, restaurants and cafes could serve customers in outdoor seating areas.

Read the full ONS report released on 11 June here.