UK Economy Finally Bigger Than Before Pandemic in November

A customer shops for food items inside a Tesco supermarket store in east London, on Jan. 10, 2022. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

LONDON—Britain’s economy grew strongly in November to finally surpass its size just before the country went into its first COVID-19 lockdown, official data showed on Friday.

The world’s fifth-biggest economy expanded by a much faster than expected 0.9 percent in November—before the latest wave of COVID-19 infections and restrictions for many firms—leaving it 0.7 percent bigger than it was in February 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.