Key Highlights
- Britain’s economy shrank unexpectedly in October as consumers held back on spending before Rachel Reeves’s budget and car manufacturing struggled to recover from the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover.
- Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed gross domestic product fell by 0.1%, after a 0.1% drop in output in September.
- City economists had predicted a 0.1% rise in October.
- After a fourth consecutive month without growth, economists said the latest snapshot would probably cement a Bank of England interest rate cut next week amid fading inflationary pressures, fears over the sluggish outlook, and rising unemployment.
- “The UK economy has faltered more dramatically than we expected,” said Andrew Wishart, senior UK economist at Berenberg.
