Regional gross domestic product: January to March 2020

The report covers the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

These are experimental statistics and should be treated with caution. The data can be volatile, and quarterly movements should be considered alongside the long-term trend.

Change over the shorter term

• GDP in Wales decreased by 2.4% in quarter 1 (January to March) 2020 compared with the previous quarter (October to December 2019). This is the largest quarterly decrease since the series began in 2012.
• For the UK as a whole, GDP decreased by 2.5%.
• Wales had the ninth largest decrease in output of the twelve UK countries and regions in quarter 1 2020.
• The construction and production sectors both saw an increase of 0.1% and 0.4% respectively. However, the services sector saw a decrease of 3.5%.
• Education saw the largest decrease at 17.8%, followed by transport and storage at 10.5%.

Change over the longer term

• Wales saw GDP decrease by 3.8% compared to the same quarter a year ago, the UK as a whole saw GDP decrease by 2.2%.
• The construction, production and services sectors all decreased over the longer term.
• Construction decreased by 2.6%, production by 3.0% and services by 4.3%.