Political turmoil and soaring prices could plunge UK into recession The latest S&P/CIPS PMI survey indicates that Britain’s private sector economy shrank sharply this month, with contraction rates returning to levels last seen in January 2021 when the country was in the grip of the longest COVID-19 lockdown. The index for October slid from 49.1 in September to 47.2 – well below the 50 point threshold that separates growth and contraction. The services PMI fell to 47.5 from 50, driven by ”squeezed household budgets, recession concerns and delayed business investment decisions due to political uncertainty,” the survey said. The PMI for the manufacturing sector fell to 45.8 in October from 48.4. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that with Liz Truss now ousted UK fiscal policy will likely weigh heavily on households. Their reduced disposable income could plunge the UK into a “protracted recession” he added.