UK economy shrinks, with long recession feared
STORY: Inflation and rate rises have British shoppers watching what they spend.
Now the economic pain is starting to become clear.
Figures out Friday (November 11) showed that the economy shrank 0.2% in the third quarter.
That was actually less bad than expected, but economists still fear it could mark the start of a long recession.
The figures mean that Britain’s GDP is even further below its pre-health crisis size - making it the only G7 economy yet to recover.
The Bank of England has warned that a slowdown could last for two years.
Market faith in the UK was rattled by the tumultuous premiership of Liz Truss.
She sent sterling, stocks and bonds into a skid with tax and borrowing plans that were soon dropped.
Now finance minister Jeremy Hunt is due to unveil a package of new measures next week.
It’s likely to feature a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts.
''The best thing that I can do as chancellor is produce a plan that brings down inflation, brings down the output pressure on interest rates. That also means that those nurses are having to pay more for their mortgages every month. So what we need is to put that plan in place. It's not going to be easy. There are going to be some very difficult choices. I've used the word eye-watering before, and that's the truth.''
The September funeral of Queen Elizabeth added to the latest contraction.
It was marked with a one-off public holiday that saw many businesses shut.
Just in that month, the economy shrank 0.6%.
That was offset by marginal growth earlier in the quarter.
