The UK economy has fallen deeper into the red, shrinking 0.3 per cent in April as businesses sounded the alarm about a full-blown recession.
GDP was down for the second month in a row after a 0.1 per cent dip in March, underlining the ‘Stagflation’ threat as prices soar.
Although the strong bounceback from Covid means there there has still been growth this year, Rishi Sunak admitted there are ‘challenges’ – with predictions of the worst squeeze on incomes in a generation.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has urged Boris Johnson and the Chancellor to take ‘action’ in the coming months needed to keep UK’s economy running.
The group warned there is a risk that the economy would be a ‘distant second’ to politics in the coming months because of the cost-of-living crisis, airports struggling to cope, planned national rail strikes and ‘Groundhog Day’ battles with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The CBI downgraded its growth outlook to 3.7 per cent for this year from 5.1 per cent previously, and just 1 per cent in 2023 from 3 per cent.
Last week the OECD think-tank predicted that the UK will flatline next year, recording the worst performance in the G20 except for sanctions-hit Russia.
