1/ The UK calculates economic growth in a different way to many other countries – more comparable approaches of GDP measurement show our performance is closer in line with our international counterparts. Read this thread & listen to Chancellor @RishiSunak explain the differences https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1360156903716900865

2/ The independent ONS has said it’s important that we’re careful when making international comparisons between the performance of our economy and others.

3/ This is because of the different approaches each nation takes to their estimates- there are significant differences in how countries measures the public sector in GDP.

4/ The ONS’s methodology follows international best practice by measuring the ‘output’ of public services – looking at things like the number of children actually in schools or GP appointments carried out.

5/ Whereas some other nations instead measure the public sector using the ‘inputs’ – things like the money governments spend on salaries or the cost of medicines.

6/ The pandemic has led to many countries having to close schools or cancel some non-urgent care. Because of this, the ONS’s methodology currently leads to a larger hit to GDP than other methods & shows the challenge of making international comparisons of GDP during the pandemic.