Britain’s economy stagnated in July, official data showed Friday, dealing another blow to the Labour government at the end of a turbulent week for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Gross domestic product flattened in the month following output of 0.4 percent in June, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. The government has suffered two high-profile departures in the past week, firstly Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner who resigned for underpaying a property tax. The PM on Thursday sacked Peter Mandelson, his ambassador in Washington, following fresh revelations about the diplomat’s friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Whilst the July GDP figure was in line with market expectations, the government acknowledged difficulty in driving economic growth, ahead of its annual budget announcement in late November.
“We know there’s more to do to boost growth, because, whilst our economy isn’t broken, it does feel stuck,” a Treasury spokesperson said in a statement. The latest data showed that a 1.3-percent drop in production offset expansion to the services and construction sectors. “The stagnation in real GDP in July shows that the economy is still struggling to gain decent momentum in the face of the drag from previous hikes in taxes and possible further tax rises to come in the budget,” noted Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics research group.
Source: AFP
