The first month of cautious unlocking saw GDP growth of 2.1%, the fastest monthly growth since August 2020 – merely from schools in parts of the UK beginning to re-open. Could April and May’s figures compete with last June’s 9.1% rise?

Once again, the construction industry is the main driver, up 5.8% on the previous month and the only measure to be higher than pre-pandemic levels, by 2.4%. All areas were up, however, including manufacturing (+2.1%) and services (+1.9%), albeit still both down on their pre-pandemic levels by 2.2% and 7.2% respectively. Unfortunately it wasn’t strong enough to reverse the fortunes of Quarter 1 as a whole, with GDP falling 1.5% overall in the first three months…