The UK’s post-pandemic economic recovery is likely to lag all of its peers except Argentina, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The thinktank that brings together 37 wealthy nations has projected that instead of falling by 10.1 per cent, as it predicted thee months ago, the UK will now take an 11.2 per cent hit to its economy this year.

The pain will run into next year, the OECD says, downgrading its growth projection from 7.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

The thinktank writes that, combined with the second wave of Covid, Brexit leaves the UK’s economy at a “critical juncture”, The Guardian reports.

With the UK’s economy set to be 6.4 per cent smaller by the end of 2021, only Argentina among the group of rich nations will be in a worse position compared to its late-2019 economy at that point.

In a rallying call on governments to halt spending cuts to navigate the pandemic-induced slump, OECD chief economist Laurence Boone is quoted by the Guardian as saying: “We need to keep up the support for the people and those in and out of jobs. We must make sure income is supported.

“When you’re in a battle and you know the cavalry is coming, you don’t stop fighting. In fact you keep fighting until the cavalry is around. In fact you keep fighting while the cavalry is there.”

However, there is a ray of good news out this morning from the manufacturing sector in the UK, where a rise from 53.7 to 55.6 in the IHS Markit/Cips purchasing managers’ index took it to its highest reading in nearly three years.

While the index beat the 55.2 “flash” reading previously recorded, analysts suggests that stockpiling of materials ahead of Brexit could be behind the numbers, which may well fall again early next year if a trade deal is not reached.