![](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/21\/02\/768x432\/d0b8e4494a14369485cc965f2b87c3b8d9e995158f1dc500a487584e424f7abf_5270526.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHouseholds saved a record \u00a3238bn last year as the locked down economy slumped, official figures show.<\/p>\n
Revised data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that Britain’s GDP suffered its biggest annual decline for three centuries in 2020 as coronavirus restrictions crushed business activity.<\/p>\n
But the savings data may fuel hopes of a spending spree fuelled by cash squirrelled away by households left unable to use much of their income because of lockdowns.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It revealed the savings ratio – that is the level of household saving as a proportion of household income – was a record 16.3% last year, up from 6.8% in 2019.<\/p>\n
That translated to £238bn of gross savings, the highest level on records going back to 1963, and up from £99bn a year earlier.<\/p>\n
At the same time there was a record fall of 10%, or £136bn, in consumer spending, easily beating the other time it has fallen – by 2.8% in 2009 during the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n
The ONS now judges that UK GDP shrank by 9.8% last year, a very slight improvement on the initial estimate<\/strong> of a 9.9% decline but still the worst performance since the Great Frost of 1709.<\/p>\n That upgrade was helped along by growth of 1.3% in the fourth quarter, previously measured at 1% – with growth coming despite a one-month lockdown in England in November.<\/p>\n Nevertheless the 2020 slump was bigger than that experienced by most other advanced world economies and left the UK’s 7.3% smaller than it was prior to the pandemic.<\/p>\n Despite that, disposable incomes have held up – climbing by 0.8% as the government’s furlough scheme has headed off a potential surge in unemployment.<\/p>\n GDP experienced a rollercoaster ride in 2020, shrinking by 2.8% in the first quarter and by 19.5% in the second quarter as the first lockdown took hold.<\/p>\n But the reopening of the economy over the summer saw it bounce back with growth of 16.9% over the July-September period before the much slower but still positive expansion of 1.3% in the last three months of the year.<\/p>\n