You Might Also Like: Rise in UK jobless rate muddies Rishi Sunak's message to votersYou Might Also Like: UK's Rishi Sunak offers more tax cuts as election polls refuse to budge(You can now subscribe to our(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channelBritain's economy showed no growth in April after a strong start to 2024, caused in large part by rainy weather, but the opposition Labour Party jumped on the figures to attack Prime Minister Rishi Sunak 's pre-election claims of a turnaround.Gross domestic product was flat in April - as expected by economists polled by Reuters - after a 0.4% month-on-month rise in March, the Office for National Statistics said.The figures followed labour market data on Tuesday that showed falling employment and rising unemployment, but continued strong wage growth.Rachel Reeves, who stands to become finance minister if the opposition Labour Party wins the election, sought to use the data to attack one of Sunak's main election campaign messages. "Overall, despite the stalling of the recovery in April, the dual drags on economic growth from higher interest rates and higher inflation will continue to fade throughout the year," Dales said. "That will generate a bit of an economic tailwind for the next government. "The Bank of England is expected to start cutting interest rates from their 16-year high of 5.25% later this year.Growth in April was driven entirely by the services sector, with information and technology and the professional and scientific expanding rapidly. However, manufacturing and construction output - both down 1.4% in monthly terms - performed worse than any economist polled by Reuters predicted.

Source: The Times June 12, 2024 06:40 UTC