Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic to Different Economic Sectors in the UK

Throughout February and March 2020, the level of concerns in the UK Treasury about the extent of the economic consequences of Covid-19 increased. In March 2020, the Office responsible for the budget shared with the Treasury some estimated impacts of a severe 35 percent hit to GDP in the second quarter of 2020, before a sharp rebound by the fourth quarter. In the same scenario, they estimated that unemployment would rise to 10 percent (GOV.UK, 2022) and this eye-watering verdict confirmed many people’s fears. Uncertainty over the UK's economic outlook was a recurring theme in the Citizens' Panel discussions in the years starting 2020 until the beginning of 2022. This was compounded by two factors. First, the uncertainty throughout 2020 was created by trade negotiations between the UK and EU as the 31 December 2020 deadline was approaching. Second, and more importantly, the alarming spread of Covid and the impact of the second and third national lockdowns, in addition to the local lockdowns. Business owners on the panels said the pandemic had forced them to reassess their business priorities and, where possible, encouraged them to innovate and diversify. The analyses in this paper are based on the review of national and international literature as well as local literature sourced from various documents and journals. The paper concludes that despite the economic negative impacts caused by the Covid19, improvements in the UK economy have been made due to the introduction of economic reforms and initiatives to overcome the difficult times. However, there still remain challenges, especially among the sectors with less efficiency in implementing economic reforms adopted by the UK government compared to other economic sectors. These could be improved with further targeted reforms.