Gross domestic product - the combined value of produced goods and services in the UK economy - contracted by two percent in the January-March period after zero growth in the three months to December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The nation's second-quarter contraction is meanwhile expected to be far steeper than the first.

In more grim news, UK output dived by a record 5.8 percent in March from the previous month. Britain implemented its COVID-19 lockdown - which is only just starting to be eased - on March 23.

"A recession is defined technically as two quarters of decline in GDP. We've seen one here with only a few days of impact from the virus," finance minister Rishi Sunak said in response to the gloomy data.

"So it is now very likely that the UK economy will face a significant recession this year and we are in the middle of that as we speak."

Activity during the period was impacted also by Brexit, or Britain's long-awaited departure from the European Union, on January 31.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020