LONDON: Britain's economy, battered this year by coronavirus and now facing fresh fears of a no-deal Brexit, slowed sharply in October from the previous month, according to official data published Thursday.
Gross domestic product expanded by just 0.4 percent in October from September, chalking up growth for the sixth consecutive month, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That marked a sharp slowdown from 1.1-percent expansion in September, while analysts warned of a difficult November when a second partial lockdown was imposed in England.
The ONS added on Thursday that GDP remains 7.9 percent below pre-pandemic levels in February - and noted that the rate of recovery has slowed each month since June. Output was also hit after more localised measures to control the virus were imposed in parts of northern and central England, as well as in Scotland and Wales.