The U.K. economy contracted in the final month of last year as the spread of the Omicron variant hit hospitality and other consumer services, but the impact of infections on the economy was smaller than expected and opens the way for further rate increases by the Bank of England as it seeks to rein in surging inflation.
With the economy expanding rapidly in October and November, growth for 2021 as a whole was 7.5%. That was the strongest performance among the Group of Seven largest rich economies, but the U.K. also suffered the largest contraction in 2020 and had further to climb to get back to its pre-pandemic level of activity.
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