The United Kingdom lives a historic weekend. Since Saturday, the British live to the rhythm of the festivities around the coronation of Carlos III. For the occasion, Monday May 8, which is usually worked on the other side of the Channel, will be a public holiday, and her Majesty’s subjects will be invited to volunteer on that day.
While this extra day off is good news for some business sectors, it should contribute to a slowdown in the UK economy as a whole, with GDP contracting around -0.7% in May, according to forecasters interviewed. by Bloomberg.
In June there would be a mechanical rebound in activity, although insufficient to avoid a slight drop in national wealth in the whole of the second quarter (-0.1%). Even so, the slowdown in the UK economy would only be temporary, as GDP should remain stable in the third quarter before increasing by 0.2% in the last three months of the year.
As expected, industry and construction are the sectors that will suffer the most from the festivities linked to the coronation of Carlos III. By contrast, services will do well, particularly businesses in the tourism sector, while the Center for Business and Economic Research estimates that British and tourist spending on shops, restaurants, hotels and pubs -allowed to stay open later – over the weekend generate £337m in additional revenue.
An increasingly limited impact
If the economists’ forecasts turn out to be correct, it would mark the second time in a year that the UK economy has slowed in a quarter due to an extra public holiday decreed by an event linked to the royal family. The last time was during Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral which was held in September. At that time, GDP had already fallen by 0.1% in the third quarter.
The fact is that these additional days off granted to the British have an increasingly limited impact on the country’s economy, no doubt because fewer and fewer companies are bringing down the curtain on these fruitful days. By way of comparison, the UK’s monthly GDP fell by 2.2% during Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in June 2002, more than during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee (-1.4%), the Platinum for June 2022 (-0.7%) and the Queen’s Funeral in September (-0.7%).
Source: BFM TV
