‘UK economy has officially slowed to a crawl’ Official figures show GDP fell by 0.3% | Personal Finance | Finance
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 0.3 percent in August official data showed today. The figures have caused fresh soncern the UK is “sliding towards” a recession”.
Jeremy Batstone-Carr, European Strategist at Raymond James said: “For all the talk of warding off the ‘anti-growth coalition’, the ONS today confirmed that expansion of the UK economy has officially slowed to a crawl.
“Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.3 percent in August as financial uncertainty, sluggish retail sales, and high energy prices constrained economic activity.
“With the extra bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral likely to further impact outputs in September, it seems increasingly probable that the UK is sliding towards a recession.”
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Alice Haine, Personal Finance Analyst at Bestinvest, said the UK isn’t in a recession yet but it’s only a matter of time.
She said: “The UK may not be in a recession yet, after the ONS revised its second quarter GDP figures to growth of 0.2 percent compared to its initial estimate of a 0.1 percent contraction but that will change going forward.
“A recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, with some analysts forecasting a deeper recession than expected from the fourth quarter of this year as the double hit of the cost-of-living and cost-of-borrowing crises constrain consumer demand.
“Households already contending with higher bills should rein in spending where they can and keep a close eye on interest rates, which are widely expected to jump by one percent, or even a staggering 1.25 percent, at the next MPC meeting on November 3, taking the base rate to 3.5 percent from the current level of 2.25 percent with further hikes to come.”
