Coronavirus And The Latest Indicators For The UK Economy And Society

19th February 2021

Published by the Office for National Statistics 18 February 2021.

According to the indicator derived from the Bank of England's Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) data, aggregate debit and credit card purchases decreased by 3 percentage points from the previous week to 72% of their February 2020 average. See Section 3.

According to initial results from the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), 20% of the workforce of all UK businesses were on furlough leave in Wave 24, a slight increase from 18% in the previous wave but considerably lower than during the first national lockdown where 30% of businesses' workforce were on furlough leave in early June 2020 (when comparable estimates began). See Section 4.

According to the latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (week ending 14 February 2021), the proportion of working adults in Great Britain who in the last seven days travelled to work (either exclusively or in combination with working from home) has decreased by 3 percentage points when compared with the previous period to 44%. See Section 5.

According to exactEarth, there was an average of 248 daily ship visits in the week ending 14 February 2021, a decrease from the previous week (275) and lower than the same period a year ago (319). See Section 6.

According to Springboard, in the week ending Saturday 13 February 2021, overall UK retail footfall increased by 3 percentage points to 39% of its level when compared with the equivalent week of 2020. See Section 7.

According to Companies House, in the week to 12 February 2021, there were 16,882 company incorporations in the UK, an increase from 15,974 in the previous week. See Section 8.

According to Adzuna, in the week ending 12 February 2021, the volume of UK online job adverts increased slightly by 1 percentage point to 81% of the level seen in the same week last year; this was driven by increases in 10 of the 12 UK regions and countries. See Section 9.

The overall price of items in the online food and drink basket decreased by 0.2% from the previous week; the main downward contributor to the overall price movement in the latest week was "sugar, jam, syrup, chocolate and confectionery". See Section 10.

According to the Department for Transport (DfT), on Monday 15 February 2021, the volume of all motor vehicle traffic saw a weekly increase of 8 percentage points to 68% of the level seen in the first week of February 2020. See Section 11.

Read the full report at -

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronavirustheukeconomyandsocietyfasterindicators/18february2021