Reeves says:
“Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers.
“At my Budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.
“Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal.”
blamed budget uncertainty for the slowdown.
Looking back over summer…. in late July, Rachel Reeves announced a £22bn ‘black hole’ had been discovered in public spending this year, which raised fears of tax rises in the budget, and in August Keir Starmer warned that ‘painful’ decisions were needed.
That was followed by a drop in UK consumer confidence.
Today’s GDP report shows that consumer-facing services grew by 0.5% in Q3, while business-facing services showed no growth in the quarter.
FTSE 100 index.here).
Resolution say this slowdown puts UK growth over the first three quarters of the year at 1.3%, behind the US (1.9%) but ahead of France and Italy (0.8% and 0.4%), with Canada set to stay just behind the UK based on current forecasts.
Simon Pittaway, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, says:
“After bouncing back from recession earlier this year, Britain’s recovery is already running out of steam. The UK has fallen below the US at the top of the G7 GDP growth leaderboard, with growth slowing, wage rises shrinking and employment starting to fall.
“The UK has been a GDP rollercoaster over the past 12 months, but its medium-term performance has been staid and stagnant. Over the past five years, the economy has shrunk by 0.7 per cent once you account for population growth.
“This all serves to highlight that the Government’s mission to renew strong economic growth is both extremely hard, and absolutely necessary.”
today’s GDP figures showing the economy slowed over the summer with just 0.1% growth (and a shock contraction in September).
Reeves says:
“Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers.
“At my Budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.
“Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal.”
Today’s GDP report shows that the UK is sitting towards the bottom of the G7 for growth over the summer.
Here’s how the lacklustre growth of just 0.1% last quarter compares with other major economies:
Labour have pledged to deliver the “highest sustained growth in the G7”; today’s data shows plenty of progress is needed…..
Source: theguardian.com
