Britain's economy looks set for a widely feared record contraction after figures showed retail sales slumped by more than a quarter and one in four firms stopped trading temporarily due to the coronavirus lockdown. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported on Thursday a 27% year-on-year drop in sales in the two weeks to April 4, which included the period after the March 23 start of a lockdown that has shuttered shops other than supermarkets. "The closure of non-essential shops led to deserted high streets and high double-digit declines in sales which even a rise in online shopping could not compensate for," BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said. Britain's budget forecasters say the economy could be on track for an unprecedented 35% decline in the April-June period. Even if the lockdown eases and growth rebounds, annual output could still fall 13% in 2020, the biggest annual decline in over 300 years. Bank of England data, collected from March 2-20, showed lenders expect the biggest rise in business borrowing since the survey began in 2007 but for demand for new mortgages to fall by the most on record as the housing market freezes up.
