Middle East shock wave emerges: UK's strong start in the first quarter abruptly halted, with GDP dropping by 0.1% in April.

The Zhitong Finance and Economics APP noticed that the strong start of the year in the UK came to a sudden halt in April, as the impact of the Middle East situation began to transmit to the real economy. Data released by the UK's Office for National Statistics on Friday showed that after two months of growth, GDP declined by 0.1% on a month-on-month basis.