According to fresh analysis from consultancy BDO, sentiment has taken a sharp hit following Chancellor Rachel Reeves's recent budget, stoking concerns among economists that the UK will end the year in decline.
Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, warned that the economy's meagre third-quarter growth of just 0.1 per cent, combined with eroding business sentiment, places Britain at clear risk of an economic contraction in the final quarter of 2024.
The downbeat picture has been reinforced by new data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which points to a steep fall in job vacancies and a rise in redundancies since Reeves's budget on 30 October.
The chancellor's £40 billion tax hike -of which £25 billion falls on employers' national insurance contributions-has stoked fears of higher inflation, weaker wage growth, and a reluctance among businesses to invest.
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