We partied for June’s jubilee, but a winter recession won’t be an easy ride

Jubilee decorations in London: the two bank holidays are said to have contributed to declining output. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex

Rewind to this time last year and the UK economy was accelerating out of the biggest slump in 300 years. The year-on-year growth rate was 8.7% and there was a sense that the worst of the pandemic was over.

China had reopened its doors to the world and inflation was falling as commodity prices – from copper and oil to wheat and timber – began to tumble.