LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Britain’s economy unexpectedly slowed to a crawl in July as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spread rapidly after lockdown restrictions were eased and as a ‘pingdemic’ kept many workers at home self-isolating. Finance minister Rishi Sunak said he was confident that the economy would continue to recover from the pandemic. Industrial output grew by 1.2 percent, boosted by the return to production of an oil field, but manufacturing was flat. Early signs of how Britain’s economy fared in August have suggested that consumers got back to spending, with unofficial measures of retail sales and broader expenditure bouncing back. ($1 = 0.7215 pounds)Reporting by William Schomberg and Andy Bruce; Editing by William Schomberg and Catherine Evans

Source: Egypt Independent September 10, 2021 10:18 UTC