UK economy recovers to pre-pandemic levels after 0.9% growth in November – business live | Business

The UK’s surge in growth in November has unfortunately been overtaken by the Omicron variant, cautions Alpesh Paleja, CBI lead economist.

Supply chain problems, and the cost of living crisis, are also weighing on growth, Paleja explains:

“While it’s good that economic growth picked up in November, the data has been overtaken by events. Activity is very likely to have taken a hit in December, as the spread of the Omicron variant and subsequent restrictions disrupted operations in certain sectors.

“As we kick off the new year, the near-term outlook is also clouded by additional challenges: shortages of labour – exacerbated by sickness absence, supply chain disruption and a cost of living crunch for households.

“Implementing Plan B in December was the right thing to do, but with Covid…