“That suggests it’s not just the Budget that is holding the economy back,” said Capital’s chief UK economist Paul Dales.
“Instead, the drag from higher interest rates may be lasting longer than we thought.”
The Bank of England has cut interest rates twice this year but, at 4.75%, they are still relatively high compared with recent years.
The Bank will meet next week for the last interest rate decision of 2024, though it is not widely expected to reduce borrowing costs again until next year.
Simon Wells, chief European economist at HSBC, cautioned about placing too much emphasis on the reading for October.
It is an initial estimate of economic growth by the ONS and could be subject to “heavy revision”, he told the BBC’s Today programme.
“So just because it is -0.1% today doesn’t mean it is going to be that when more data has come in in a few months’ time.”
Over the three months to October, the economy expanded by 0.1%.
Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's newsGet our free newsletter from The Independent's Race CorrespondentGet our fre
In a determined effort to retain Nissan’s manufacturing presence in Britain, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has vowed to implement “substantial c
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds today (Friday 7 March) met chiefs for Fujitsu in Tokyo to begin talks over the cost of redress for victims of th
UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said that a new multilateral fund will be needed to secure Europe’s defence as he confirmed that Britain is “open to”