On the positive side, the latest figures show the economy is within a hair’s breadth of its pre-Covid position, at only 0.5% below February 2020 levels. The new restrictions announced so far remain relatively light-touch, while there are hopes that tougher measures may not be required, thanks to steady progress with the vaccine booster programme.
However, pressure is clearly building on an economy that was already struggling for momentum before the new variant emerged, while there is heightened uncertainty over the next stage in a pandemic that is far from over.
Faced with these risks, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said he had always acknowledged there would be “bumps on the road” to recovery but the government already had in place an “ongoing £400bn economic support package” to keep the country on track.
That’s an odd way to describe a programme that has been largely dismantled over recent months, ostensibly…
