1/7 Today we publish our first weekly faster indicators release providing data to help people understand the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the economy and society, first results in this thread

2/7 Today we include data from our new business survey with returns from over 3,600 business, prices data for ‘high demand’ products and shipping indicators

3/7 45% of businesses reported turnover that was “lower than expected” for the period 9 to 22 March 2020

4/7 Over a quarter (27%) of businesses said they were reducing staff levels in the short term

5/7 The majority of responding businesses reported that the prices they buy and sell at were stable

6/7 Online prices of items in the ‘high-demand’ products basket have increased by 1.1% between 16 - 22 March and 23 to 29 March, with increases in prices of cough medicine and falls in anti-bacterial wipes

7/7 The full release can be found here https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronavirustheukeconomyandsocietyfasterindicators/dataasat2april2020 – next week we will provide more detailed cuts of the business survey data and other new indicators.

Also more here on the @ONS response to COVID-19 more broadly: https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/ensuringthebestpossibleinformationduringcovid19throughsafedatacollection