Jeremy Hunt has warned of a “tough road ahead” after new figures revealed that the UK economy contracted by 0.2 per cent between July and September, in what could herald the start of a protracted recession.
The chancellor admitted the government would be forced to take “extremely difficult decisions to restore confidence and economic stability”, but insisted that the “fundamental resilience of the British economy is cause for optimism in the long run.”
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen by 0.6 per cent in September, in part due to the Queen’s funeral. It could be the beginning of a recession – which is defined as two quarters of shrinking GDP in a row.
Reacting to the news, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) National chair Martin McTague said the “outlook for the UK economy is now very bleak indeed”, and urged ministers to demonstrate that they have “grasped the scale of the issue.”
Elsewhere, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called the latest GDP figures “extremely worrying – and is another page of failure in the Tories’ record.”
