UK firms’ profits collapse by a fifth in November as lockdown bites
UK businesses saw profits fall by an average of 20 per cent year-on-year in November, according to a respected business tracker.
The Opinium/Cebr tracker tallies with other indicators suggesting that the economic recovery has at best stalled and perhaps even reversed in the last quarter of the year.
Read more: UK borrowing figures are third highest month on record
Growth in Q3 across the UK was a record 16 per cent but the return of restrictions at both a local and national level has choked off any resurgence.
The move to Tier 3 restrictions in much of the country for most of December and then the effective lockdown of Tier 4 areas will also take a toll, experts think.
The Opinium poll suggests companies will pull in £5 this year for every £6 they received last year.
Pablo Shah, Managing Economist at Cebr said “the results… show that the lockdown in November eroded some of the economic gains the UK recorded during the summer months.”
The only bright spot was an uptick in confidence for 2021, with the potential deployment of a vaccine boosting expectations for the year to come.
The survey was undertaken prior to the announcement of the new ‘mutant’ strain of Covid-19.
Read more: UK growth hits 16 per cent in Q3 but recovery stalls in October