UK’s largest economic contractions:
Year: GDP
1706: -15.3%
1709: -13.3%
1710: – 9.1%
1921: – 9.7%
2020: – 9.9%
Every year between 1709 and 2020 posted better economic numbers in the U.K. than 2020’s 9.9% decline. So far, there were only 2 exceptions, 1706 (-15.3%) and 1709 (-13.3%). For perspective, consider that over those 300-plus years, the U.K. has gone through:
The American Revolution
Multiple cholera, influenza and smallpox pandemics
Famine and food riots in 1816
Zeppelin attacks during World War I
The Great Depression of the 1930s
Massive bombings in World War II
The financial crisis of 2008 to 2009.
Over three centuries, the U.K. has gone through some trying times.
Yet the economic decline in 2020 was still worse than the economic impact in each of those years.
If you are a patient long-term investor, the stock market is moving in your favour. There will always be unexpected and scary downturns but over the long term, the stock market just keeps going higher. It pays to buy stocks when the situation looks bad and and even worse to quit the market at all then.
Sven Franssen