Pedestrians walk past British Union flag designs on advertisements.
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The U.K. economy unexpectedly contracted in the three months to October, according to official figures released Friday.
It follows a 0.1% expansion over the three months to September. Economists had expected 0% growth over the period.
The Office for Statistics noted that services output stalled, construction output fell 0.3% and production output fell 0.5% “largely because of a fall in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers in this period.”
“October’s GDP underscores just how much difficulty the U.K. economy is going through as the government searches for some sort of growth,” Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter wealth management company, said in a note.
“This figure also misses what were already low expectations and doesn’t bode well for next month’s figure either.”
Looking ahead to the central bank’s rate decision next week, James added that Friday’s figures made it “increasingly likely the Bank of England will have to lower rates next week when it meets, but with inflation remaining persistently high, the pace at which subsequent cuts can be delivered remains questionable.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated shortly.