The UK is about to experience its biggest economic boom since the aftermath of WW2, according to Barclays boss Jes Staley, as the bank reveal its profits for Q1 had more than doubled from a year earlier to £2.4bn.

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He said: “We estimate the UK economy will grow at its fastest rate since 1948. That’s pretty spectacular. I think there will be a very robust recovery. There’s so much pent-up demand and there’s money available to exercise that demand, I think the economy will do pretty well.”

Aiding the economic recovery will be the vaccine programme, but also the built-up savings which will help drive the rebound and the stamp duty holiday which helped the housing market and its mortgage division. Barclays’ estimate an extra £200bn is now sitting in customer and company bank accounts.

The boost in Barclay’s profits was driven by a more confident view on how many of its loans would be repaid, a similar view of Lloyds Banking Group who also announced pre-tax profits of £1.9bn for Q1 earlier this week.

Mr Staley added: “As we enter the next phase of this pandemic, we remain resolute in our commitment to support the economic recovery. From our spend data, which captures UK economic activity across our cards and acquiring businesses, we are already seeing encouraging early signs of recovery in some sectors, including those hit hardest by the crisis.”

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