How an extra bank holiday could help revive the economy

The CEBR thinks sectors such as retail, catering and hospitality could benefit by as much as half a billion pounds from extra spending while any lost productivity could be made back in as little as a month, James Moore writes

An extra bank holiday could give a boost to the high street stores badly hit by the coronavirus crisis (AFP)

Bank holidays are often accompanied by grim analyses of their cost to the economy.

One such report was produced by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, and it still gets quoted quite often. But now the CEBR has looked at the other side of the coin: their potential benefit.

That's relevant because the number of days of bank holiday in the UK is very low by international standards – just eight in the year – and because of the mooted plans to create an additional one this year, in October.