The UK announced on Wednesday that its economy had shrunk by 0.3% in August. Photographer: Dave Thompson/Bloomberg
Britain’s finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, said on Wednesday that the government’s growth plan would address the challenges faced by the country after the latest data showed the economy had shrunk.
According to official data, Britain’s economy shrank by 0.3% in August from July.
The shrinking strengthens predictions that it will fall into a recession.
Main contributors leading to the shrinkage include a slowdown in manufacturing and by maintenance work that slowed the oil and gas sector, official data showed.
“Our growth plan will address the challenges that we face with ambitious supply-side reforms and tax cuts, which will grow our economy, create more well-paid skilled jobs and in turn raise living standards for everyone,” Kwarteng said in a statement.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that prices in the country were rising at their fastest rate for 40 years.
The Bank of England said previously that it expected the UK to fall into a recession by the end of the year.
According to government statistics, the employment rate for June to August 2022 was 75.5%, 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous quarter (March to May 2022), which had a notably higher employment rate than other periods.
The employment rate is 1.0 percentage points lower than before the pandemic.
A Labour Market report on Wednesday revealed that the unemployment rate for June to August 2022 decreased by 0.3 percentage points on the quarter to 3.5%, the lowest rate since December to February 1974.
While the number of people unemployed for between six and 12 months increased on the quarter, there were decreases for the short term (up to six months) and long term (over 12 months) unemployed.
In June to August 2022, the number of unemployed people per vacancy fell to a record low of 0.9, statistics showed.