There are reasons to be cheerful in November’s GDP figures

Another important point to make is that the majority of the drag came from the services, with 80pc of the fall concentrated in just a handful of sectors that had restrictions imposed on them again including hospitality, the arts, entertainment and recreation.

Industrial production – which includes manufacturing and energy production – fell but only marginally by 0.1pc, while growth in construction was 1.9pc, pushing output back above pre-pandemic levels. That resilience is also equally reassuring.

All of which bodes well for the recovery once this current lockdown ends. The vaccine rollout got off to a slow start but is accelerating quickly. We have now inoculated more people than the rest of Europe put together. Only Israel, which flew out of the traps, can claim to be ahead of the UK.

Having initially sounded wildly-ambitious, a target of vaccinating the 13m in the top four groups – care home residents, people aged 70 and over, clinically extremely vulnerable individuals and frontline healthcare workers – by the middle of next month now looks achievable. That would eliminate roughly nine out of 10 Covid deaths, according to the Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group.

By then, the Government should be thinking about lifting restrictions quickly. When it does, there are all the right ingredients for a strong rebound.

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