UK's Sunak 'cautiously optimistic' about COVID recovery

LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi Sunak said he was positive about the outlook as the economy recovered from the COVID pandemic, and reiterated that unemployment had risen much less than feared earlier.

"I feel cautiously optimistic that as we reopen, the economy is moving up a gear and we should have confidence about that," he told radio station LBC.

Official data for April showed that economic output was still 3.7% below its pre-pandemic level. The Bank of England forecasts the economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by the end of the year.

(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William James)