The UK’s economy contracted for the second month running in October, defying expectations for a rebound as car manufacturing only made a slight recovery from the Jaguar Land Recovery cyber attack.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.1% in October, following a 0.1% decline in September.
Most economists had been expecting a rise of 0.1% for October on hopes of a manufacturing bounceback led by Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) recovery from a major hack.
The data shows the UK economy has now not grown since June, with GDP either flat or falling in the past four months.
Many businesses have recently indicated that activity in the economy slowed in the lead up to the Budget, delivered on November 26, as speculation over possible tax measures grew.
ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: “Within production, there was continued weakness in car manufacturing, with the industry only making a slight recovery in October from the substantial fall in output seen in the previous month.”
