UK economy declines for second straight month

by Admin
December 13, 2024

Britain’s economy shrank for a second month in a row in October in the run-up to the government’s first budget, the first back-to-back falls in output since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a setback for new finance minister Rachel Reeves. Gross domestic product contracted by 0.1% month-on-month in October, as it did in September, the Office for National Statistics said.

It was the first consecutive drop in monthly GDP, which is volatile and prone to revision, since March and April 2020, when Britain enforced its first COVID-19 lockdown.

The ONS said there was “mixed” anecdotal evidence from companies that turnover had been affected by companies waiting for the budget statement, which imposed large tax rises on businesses.

The services sector flatlined, while output in the manufacturing and construction industries declined in October’s data, which measured the economy in the weeks before Reeves’ budget statement on Oct. 30.

Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer – who made stronger economic growth the centrepiece of the Labour Party‘s election campaign this year – had warned that the budget would include painful tax increases.