UK economy likely to recover slowly from Covid hit-budget office head

Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said a scenario published by the OBR last month showing a quick V-shaped recovery was only meant to be illustrative to show the hit to the public finances.

Britain’s economy is likely to have a slower economic recovery rather than a quick bounce-back after its coronavirus shutdown, the head of the country’s budget forecasting office said on Sunday.

A closed tourist souvenir shop on Oxford Street in London, as the country is in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. (AP)

Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said a scenario published by the OBR last month showing a quick V-shaped recovery was only meant to be illustrative to show the hit to the public finances.

“In practice I think you are likely not to see the economy bouncing back to where we would have expected it otherwise to be by the end of the year, on that assumption, but instead a rather slower recovery,” he told BBC television.