Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK economy flatlining in April

New figures showed the UK economy experienced no growth in April.

The region's GDP was flat for an entire month, off the back of a 0.4 percent bump in March.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says this dip will be a problem for the Conservative Party ahead of the election.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray UK corresponds with us right now even in Gavin.
Hi there, Heather, So your economy has been flatlining.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, it's quite a depressing image for the Conservative government
at the moment. The economy absolutely static, pretty flatline for
the month of April. It was pretty widely expected. It
comes after record growth for the previous three months. But
this dip is a real problem. But it's a dip

(00:28):
because effectively the Conservatives have made the economy an absolute
central core issue to their general election campaigning now just
three weeks away. So, as I said, economists have predicted
this zero percent performance, saying that actually, wet weather a
very bad start to our summer, as I've been boring

(00:48):
everyone with, has really hit retail sales in particular, and
also construction output has really been hit hard. We've had
a lot of rain affecting that construction output. So over
the long term the picture is still more positive, but
it's a headline this government could do without. The recent
opinion polls are suggesting that Rishie Sunac's party is in

(01:09):
for an absolute hammering at this election, although I have
to say these opinion polls can sometimes be pretty far
out of the truth. Though everyone seems to think this
is what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, I'd say so. By the sounds of things, it's
not going to be good. Hey, so what are the
cops planning for the anti monarchy protests? Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Interesting, So Saturday marks a very very big day for
the royals really in that it's trooping the Color that
takes place right in the heart of London horse Guards
Parade near Buckingham Palace, and normally the monarch will make
this a big appearance of the year, and the King
is going to do that. But the anti monarchy group

(01:50):
republic wants to hold a protest as well. Now, fair enough,
all everybody entitled to their opinion. But they have now
been written to by police saying well, actually, according to
the European Convention on Human Rights, we're going to close
down that quoters, We're not going to let you protest there. Instead,
you have got to protest around the corner, away from

(02:13):
the public and away from the parade and away from
the media. Well, the Republican group is saying, look, this
is ridiculous, this is really spurious grounds that a protests
would deny spectators the right to enjoy the parade and
says human rights legislation quote does not provide a right
to enjoy a day out. Anyway. This is going to

(02:34):
go backwards and forwards, I sense here, But it is
seeming to be a remarkable sort of change in heart
from the police over how they police big events involving
the monarchy, or remember the row over the coronation and
how that event was marred by some Republicans. It was
argued and other Republicans saying, you know, we were only
making our voices heard, and yet you led us away

(02:56):
on police fans. Anyway, a big day coming out watch
this space on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
It's you're right, hey Denmark, how spicy are these noodles?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh well, I only like mild food, so way too
spicy for me. But Denmark has record several very popular
spicy noodle products by a South Korean company, claiming that
the levels of cap skin in them could cause poison
or for the consumers. I mean they're banning three flavors,
all pretty fiery from sam Yang the production company. Three

(03:29):
times spicy and hot chicken, two times spicy and hot
chicken and hot chicken stew have all been banned by
Denmark's food agency they're saying that effectively, the amount of
this product or this particular compound, which is what causes
the chilliness to hotness to eat when you're tasting it.
They say the amount is so high that it could

(03:51):
actually pose a risk to consumer developing acute poisoning. And
they're saying, if you've bought the products, discard them or
return them to the store, do not eat them. No
response yet from the company that made them.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I wonder if it's something specific to peculiar to the
UK pellette if you know what I mean, So it
can't be yeah, yes or yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
They must like mild food you see.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, Hi, thank you very much, Gavin, look after yourself.
That's Gavin Gray are UK corresponding. Apparently there's a few
that I didn't realize this between Taylor Swift and Billy Iron.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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