Despite the UK’s March GDP decline proving not quite as bad as consensus estimates, it was still difficult to draw comfort from the figures, investment managers say.

UK GDP fell 5.8 percent compared with February, against a consensus estimate of -7.9 percent.

As UBS Wealth Management’s chief economist Paul Donovan put it in his daily briefing, the consensus range was so wide it amounted to “little more than economists throwing random darts at a dartboard, while blindfolded”.