The UK’s economy shrank by 19.1% in the three months to May, as the full impact of lockdown was felt, the Office for National Statistics has said.

The economy actually grew by 1.8% in May, but this was not enough to make up for the fall of 6.9% in March and the record 20.4% decline in April.

Manufacturing and house building showed signs of recovery in May as some businesses saw staff return to work.

Despite this, most of the economy was “in the doldrums”, the ONS said.

“The economy was still a quarter smaller in May than in February, before the full effects of the pandemic struck,” said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS.

“In the important services sector, we saw some pick-up in retail, which saw record online sales. However, with lockdown restrictions remaining in place, many other services remained in the doldrums, with a number of areas seeing further declines.”

Mr Athow told the BBC’s Today programme that there could be signs of improvement in next month’s release of figures.

“Some of the survey data we’re seeing suggests that as more of the economy reopened and as some of the restrictions were eased, we did see stronger performance in June, but it’s really early,” he said.

“You’ve got one month of firm data and some indicators suggesting June might be stronger, but there’s a long road to go here and we’re still trying to figure out what the best data is to understand the overall picture.”

“The economy was still a quarter smaller in May than in February, before the full effects of the pandemic struck,” said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS.

“In the important services sector, we saw some pick-up in retail, which saw record online sales. However, with lockdown restrictions remaining in place, many other services remained in the doldrums, with a number of areas seeing further declines.”

Mr Athow told the BBC’s Today programme that there could be signs of improvement in next month’s release of figures.

“Some of the survey data we’re seeing suggests that as more of the economy reopened and as some of the restrictions were eased, we did see stronger performance in June, but it’s really early,” he said.

“You’ve got one month of firm data and some indicators suggesting June might be stronger, but there’s a long road to go here and we’re still trying to figure out what the best data is to understand the overall picture.”