UK faces biggest hit from coronavirus of any major economy in the WORLD with GDP set to plunge 11.5 PER CENT this year, OECD warns - and it could be even worse if there is a second peak

• OECD think-tank has released latest estimates for the global economy this year
• UK faces the biggest hit from coronavirus with an 11.5 per cent plunge in GDP
• The fall is slightly bigger than predicted for France or Italy amid the virus chaos  

The UK faces the biggest hit from coronavirus of any major economy, an international think-tank warned today. 

The OECD's latest estimates predict that GDP will nosedive by 11.5 per cent this year, even more than the 11.4 per cent expected in France and 11.3 per cent in Italy.

The crash could be even worse if there is a second peak of the deadly disease, with output likely to be down 14 per cent overall in 2020.

The grim picture - in line with the Bank of England's fears of the worst recession in 300 years - came in the OECD's update on the global economic outlook.   

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The OECD's latest estimates predict that GDP will nosedive by 11.5 per cent this year, even more than the 11.4 per cent expected in France and 11.3 per cent in Italy

The body says the world's GDP is set to contract by 6 per cent, with all countries suffering a deep downturn and struggling to recover quickly.

A double-hit scenario with Covid-19 surging again would see the global economy slump 7.6 per cent and rebound even more slowly. 

The UK's recession is predicted to be significantly worse than that in Canada, Germany, the US and Japan, where the fall should stay in single digits.

British GDP is expected to plummet in this quarter by perhaps a third, but claw back ground in the rest of the year to reduce the losses.   

OECD chief economist Laurence Boone said both the single peak and double peak scenarios were 'sobering'.'Economic activity does not and cannot return to normal under these circumstances,' she said.

'By the end of 2021, the loss of income exceeds that of any previous recession over the last 100 years outside wartime, with dire and long-lasting consequences for people, firms and governments.'

She added: 'Extraordinary policies will be required to walk the tightrope towards recovery.

'Even if growth does surge in some sectors, overall activity will remain muted for a while.

'Governments can provide the safety nets that allow people and firms to adjust, but cannot uphold private sector activity, employment and wages for a prolonged period.' 

Speaking on a visit to a John Lewis store this morning, Chancellor Rishi Sunak encouraged people to use shops when more reopen on Monday.

He said: 'Last month we set out a clear plan to reopen our country slowly and today we're at the next stage of that plan where next week we'll be able to open shops again in our country.

'And that's because we've met the five tests that we set out.

'I hope that when all these shops open people should have the confidence to know that they can go out again in safety. And that's very important.' 

The Chancellor is believed to be among the most hawkish in government on the need to reopen the economy. 

He has privately told colleagues that the impact of keeping millions of pupils at home is the same scale as the financial crisis, which required nearly £140billion in taxpayer bailouts, according to the Telegraph.

Treasury sources dismissed the report as 'categorically not true'.

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Speaking on a visit to a John Lewis store this morning, Chancellor Rishi Sunak encouraged people to use shops when more reopen on Monday