of a slowdown in the recovery from the pandemic, as global supply chain woes take their toll. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity is here. how does this level of growth compare with what is normal? well, if ou are compare with what is normal? well, if you are talking compare with what is normal? well, if you are talking about compare with what is normal? .11 if you are talking about before the pandemic, then it is really good growth. 0.4% in among translates to four or 5% over the year, that would be faster growth than we have had for decades. 0utside be faster growth than we have had for decades. outside of the bounce back from the pandemic. but we have to remember these are exceptional circumstances. if you look at what is happening to the economy over the last 18 months, we have a chart here you can look at and you can see it is like a precipitous roller coaster. write down at the beginning with the lockdown suppressing economic activity and right back up. but now it has lev
beginning with the lockdown of suppressing economic activity and then right back up, but now you can see it has levelled off and we are not quite back up to the level we were pandemic stop and in fact, if you look at the figure forjuly, the revised figure, it shows the economy shrank slightly injuly, said about some slight signs that this recovery is not as fast as the bank of england anticipated when it said there would be great of a 7% this year and a big there would be great of a 7% this yearand a big part there would be great of a 7% this year and a big part of the reason is what you have already been talking about, namely shortages and supply bottlenecks. the shortages mean that in industries like construction, there are plenty of orders in, but they cannot actually meet those orders. in some cases they are turning away orders because they do not have the materials in some cases the skilled labour to meet those orders. care organisations in england are struggling to recruit staff,