LONDON (Reuters) – The proportion of British workers who are partly or wholly on furlough dropped to 4% in the two weeks to July 25, the lowest since the pandemic crisis programme began, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.

Spending on credit and debit cards rose to 96% of its average in February 2020 in the week to July 29, up by 2 percentage points from the week before, according to CHAPS payment data provided by the Bank of England.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)