It’s official.
Not only is the UK now formally in recession.
It’s the deepest recession in UK history.
The deepest of any G7 economy.
The deepest since the invention of Gross Domestic Product.
GDP shrank by 20.4% in Q2, acc to @ONS. Follows a 2.2% fall in Q1

Here it is in chart form.
The UK's 20.4% contraction in GDP (that bar on the far right hand side) compared with every other quarterly GDP growth number back to 1920.
We've never seen anything like this.

One bit of good news: this recession will prob be the shortest in 45 years.
Most recent recessions lasted longer than two quarters but in this case GDP is expected to bounce back with v strong growth in Q3 (eg NOW).
That would make it the first two-quarter recession since 1975

Here's a chart showing you the level of UK GDP - eg the "size" of the economy - since 2000.
In the space of two quarters UK GDP has gone back to the same level it was in mid 2003.
So not just a lost decade, but a lost 17 years.
Happily it will soon rebound.
Even so. Blimey.

This chart shows you how the change in UK gross domestic product in the first half of this year compares with all the other developed economies which have so far reported their numbers. Among the deepest dips in the world.

Not just any recession. A recession unlike anything we've seen before and anything we will probably see again.
That's bad news, but it's also good news.
My @skynews analysis on today's GDP figures, and why none of the usual rules apply this time around: https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-the-scale-of-this-economic-contraction-is-unlikely-ever-to-be-repeated-12047575