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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted she has a “big” activity to show across the economic system, after progress flatlined within the third quarter and enterprise teams warned of a tricky begin to 2025.
Mel Stride, shadow chancellor, stated the “warning lights are flashing” after the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics stated GDP didn’t develop within the three months to September, down from its preliminary estimate of a 0.1 per cent enlargement.
This mirrored flat output within the dominant companies sector within the aftermath of Labour’s July election victory, whereas manufacturing output fell 0.4 per cent, offsetting a 0.7 per cent enhance within the development sector.
Enterprise teams are warning that poor progress appears set to stretch into the brand new yr, and Reeves admitted: “The problem we face to repair our economic system and correctly fund our public funds after 15 years of neglect is big.”
The CBI foyer group printed survey findings on Monday displaying a majority of personal sector corporations anticipated exercise to fall within the three months to March, and have been “trying to the federal government to spice up confidence and to present them a purpose to take a position”.
The British Retail Consortium stated its newest polling confirmed there had been a giant drop within the public’s spending intentions, which left retailers dealing with “a difficult yr . . . buffeted by low shopper demand and £7bn of latest prices from the Finances set to hit the business in 2025”.
If progress undershoots forecasts made within the Finances, it raises the prospect that the chancellor might must ship spending cuts or increased taxes subsequent yr to make sure she continues to satisfy her borrowing guidelines.
Paul Johnson, head of the Institute for Fiscal Research, warned that the chancellor might must “come again for cash” in her Finances in autumn 2025, in what could be a severe setback for Reeves’ credibility.
The federal government has put boosting progress on the coronary heart of its agenda however now faces the risk that the economic system might have contracted within the closing quarter of the yr.
Stride stated Reeves’ “disastrous Finances” — which included a £25bn rise in employers’ nationwide insurance coverage contributions — must be revisited. “Each second of delay is additional damaging enterprise confidence, output and employment,” he stated.
The federal government’s most popular measures of dwelling requirements give a equally bleak image. The ONS stated on Monday that actual GDP per capita fell by 0.2 per cent on the quarter and on the yr, whereas early estimates confirmed households’ disposable revenue had stagnated throughout the third quarter, following progress of 1.4 per cent within the three months to June.
Knowledge printed earlier this month confirmed GDP shrank 0.1 per cent in October, the second straight month-to-month contraction.
On Monday, the ONS additionally revised its estimate for second-quarter progress down from 0.5 per cent to 0.4 per cent, indicating the economic system started slowing sooner than beforehand thought.
Latest figures have pointed to a softening within the jobs market, stubborn inflation and falling enterprise confidence.
The Financial institution of England final week predicted zero expansion within the fourth quarter, down from its earlier forecast of 0.3 per cent progress.
Economists stated the small print of Monday’s downwardly revised GDP information contained some vivid spots, with shopper spending rising at a wholesome tempo, enterprise funding selecting up and households now not piling cash into financial savings.
Paul Dales, on the consultancy Capital Economics, stated the downward revision within the third quarter was “primarily as a result of exterior influences fairly than the home economic system”, together with an even bigger drag from web commerce.
However the total image was that progress had “floor to a halt”, he stated, as a result of “the lingering drag from increased rates of interest, weaker abroad demand and a few considerations over the insurance policies within the Finances”.
