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com.

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots,

Vantage's Daily Politics Podcast.

I'm Katie Balls and I'm joined by James Fusif and Kate Andrews.

Today we've had the latest GDP figures and Kate, can you talk us through them?

Is there encouraging news or is the picture rather gloomy?

Well, the headlines not great. The UK economy contracted nearly 10% in 2020, which was the largest yearly fall on record

and the largest contraction in 300 years. Now, in some ways, this feels like old news because

we've spoken about this countless times,

and we've all lived through this experience with you not being able to buy a coffee or go to your

local shop. Everybody knew that lockdowns and this pandemic have taken their toll, but the actual

data from the ONS, the Office for National Statistics today reflects that. I suppose the good news,

however, and I do think it's meaningful, is that the UK seems to have avoided a double-dip

recession, and that means for two quarters in a row, the UK economy grew. Now, if we compare

Q3 last year where there was over 16% rise in GDP to Q4, where there was a measly 1%. You know, you have to note it's dramatically

slowed down. Month to month hasn't been great news for the economy. In December, we saw 1.2%

...