UK Chancellor on recession: "hard times are here"

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Wednesday that "hard times are here" and more people will lose their jobs, as the economy has officially fallen into a recession.

Official figures showed it contracting by a record 20.4% in the second quarter as a result of lockdown measures put in place to counter the coronavirus pandemic.

The slump recorded by the Office for National Statistics follows a 2.2% quarterly contraction in the first three months of the year.

As such, the U.K. economy is in a recession - commonly defined as two quarters of negative growth.