The economy grew 0.1% in August, beating economists’ forecasts of a 0.1% contraction, though sharply down from 0.4% growth in July. Two weeks before Healey’s Budget…
Over the three months to August the economy grew 0.7%, up from 0.5% in the previous three months. The ONS put this down to upward revisions to services output in June and July, with IT services as the biggest contributor. Inflation did hit 3.1% in August, well above the Bank of England’s 2% target, and the markets expect a quarter-point rise to 4% next month. The FT estimates Healey’s headroom against his ‘fiscal rules’ has shrunk to circa £12 billion, down from the £23.6 billion the OBR forecast in March. Tax rises on 28 October on the way…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.