The British economy staged a muted recovery in November, putting more pressure on the Bank of England (BoE). According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the UK economy expanded by 0.2% in November after contracting by 0.3% in the previous month.

This recovery translated to a year-on-year growth of 0.2%. Additional data in the report revealed that the country’s industrial and manufacturing production continued doing well. Industrial production rose by 0.3% in November from minus 0.8% in the previous month.

Manufacturing production, on the other hand, has risen by 0.3% in November. Construction output also jumped by 0.9% as the housing market remains strong. Recent data revealed that UK housing prices jumped for three straight months. Companies like Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey have also published strong results.

Meanwhile, the UK continued to see big trade deficits as its exports retreated. The trade deficit came in at 14.19 billion pounds. Non-EU deficits also remained above 2.8 billion pounds in November.

These numbers came a few days before the UK publishes the latest consumer and producer inflation numbers. Economists believe that the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) retreated in December to 3.7%. Core inflation is expected to come in at 4.9%.

British politicians are putting more pressure on the Bank of England to start cutting interest rates in the first half of the year. Like the Fed, the bank hiked interest rates to a multi-decade high of 5.25% in a bid to slow inflation.

The government, on the other hand, is considering delivering some tax cuts to stimulate the economy ahead of this year’s election. Still, the biggest issue for the UK is that Brexit is a lingering challenge for the economy. Estimates are that the UK economy has lost over 180 billion pounds of value since Brexit happened.

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