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.

The longest-running measure of consumer confidence fell sharply in September, raising concerns about whether government rhetoric about Budget "pain" has spooked people. GfK's Consumer Confidence Index had been recovering after years of rolling crises,