LONDON: Britain’s economy shrank for a second month in October in the run-up to the new government’s first budget, the first back-to-back falls in output since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gross domestic product shrank 0.1% month-on-month in October, as it did in September, the Office for National Statistics said.

It was the first consecutive drop in monthly GDP - which is volatile and prone to revision - since March and April 2020, when Britain enforced its first coronavirus lockdown.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a monthly expansion of 0.1%.

The services sector flatlined, while output in the manufacturing and construction industries declined in October.