As the October 30 Budget looms, Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, stressed that Ms Reeves will need to spend more than the one per cent year-over-year real public spending increases which had been pencilled in by her predecessor Jeremy Hunt.

China’s broad budget expenditure shrank at a faster clip amid an unprecedented drop in income earned by local governments from land sales, an alarming sign for an economy desperately in need of fiscal support.

GfK's Consumer Confidence Barometer has tumbled further into negative territory since the end of August. The index had been recovering after the years of the Covid pandemic, rising prices and higher interest rates had dented the outlook for many.