London (AFP) – The British economy contracted more than expected in October, according to official figures published on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a day before the Bank of England’s latest monetary policy decision for the year is published.
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The Office for National Statistics announced that UK GDP fell by 0.3% in October (higher than the small contraction of 0.1% expected by economists), after expanding by 0.2% the previous month.
These new figures, which paint a bleak picture of the British economy, will be analyzed by the Bank of England.
The latter kept interest rates unchanged since September at 5.25%, and is expected to continue this way on Thursday.
The British economy stagnated in the third quarter of the year, after growth of 0.2% in the previous quarter, which at least temporarily eliminated the risk of recession.
James Smith, research director at Decision Research, said: “The poor performance of the UK economy in October will inevitably raise speculation about whether the country has fallen back into recession.”
The government’s budget forecasting body said last month that the British economy would grow by 0.6% this year, an improvement on official forecasts in March that predicted a decline of 0.2%.
Instead, it lowered its forecast for 2024, with growth of 0.7% when it had previously spoken of 1.8%.
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