Britain's Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said Friday that she is not satisfied by official figures showing the British economy's rebound from recession slowed down sharply in the third quarter of the year, with most sectors stagnating.
The Office for National Statistics said growth during the July to September period was just 0.1 per cent. That was lower than the 0.5 per cent recorded in the previous three-month period and below market expectations for 0.2 per cent.
The statistics agency said overall output in September actually shrank, a development that has further fueled accusations from critics of the new Labour government that its pessimism dragged the economy down in its first few weeks in office.
On coming to power in July for the first time in 14 years, the government described its economic inheritance from the former Conservative administration as the bleakest in decades, requiring urgent action to fix the public finances. The Conservatives' Treasury spokesperson, Mel Stride,