Britain’s economy shrank by a quarter in the March-April period as entire sectors were shuttered by the coronavirus lockdown, reaching what looks likely to be the bottom of a “catastrophic” crash before a long and slow recovery. In a slump dwarfing previous downturns, the economy contracted by 20.4% in April from March, when it shrank by nearly 6%. It was 24.5% smaller than in April 2019. Both readings were below the unprecedentedly weak forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists. The Office for National Statistics said the economy had shrunk back to its size in 2002. “This is catastrophic, literally on a scale never seen before in history,” Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said. “The real issue is what happens next.” Finance minister Rishi Sunak said: “In line with many other economies around the world, coronavirus is having a severe […]