Britain's economy shrank by 1.5% in the first quarter of the year after the country was pushed into a third Covid lockdown - forcing millions of businesses to close.
The three month period saw more than 4.5million people remain on furlough as students were sent home until further notice due to emergency school closures.
Official guidance was to “stay at home” due to rising infection rates as the inoculation rollout got underway.
But, despite another contraction, the dent on the economy is much smaller than during the first lockdown when gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by nearly a fifth between April and June.
Overall, 2020 saw GDP shrink by nearly 10% prompting a mini recession.
But experts forecast the return of trade, schools and the completion of the vaccine rollout this year will result in the economy’s strongest annual growth since the Second World War.
A month-by-month breakdown of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows GDP shrank by 2.5% in January but grew again, by 0.7%, in February, and expanded by 2.1% in March.
Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said the constriction industry is near pre-pandemic levels and EU imports have returned to December levels - pre-Brexit.
"The strong recovery seen in March, led by retail and the return of schools, was not enough to prevent the UK economy contracting over the first quarter as a whole, with the lockdown affecting much of the services sector," he said.
"However, construction grew strongly over the quarter and, in March, was above its pre-pandemic level.
"Manufacturing also recovered from an initial fall, increasing strongly in February and March, as businesses continued to adapt and make themselves Covid-19 secure.
"Exports of goods to the EU continued to increase in March and are now almost back to their December level.
"However, imports from Europe remain sluggish in the first three months of the year, being outstripped by non-EU imports for the first time on record."
