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We’ll get to the actual economics in a moment – to the questions of why the economy is flatlining and what it means for Rachel Reeves’ forthcoming budget. But before that, let’s take a moment to ponder something rather extraordinary.
The hackers whose cyber attack took down production at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) a couple of months ago have single-handedly caused a fall in UK gross domestic product.
Were it not for the 28.6% collapse in car production we saw in September (save for the pandemic, the biggest monthly drop in car output in modern record), the UK economy would have grown by 0.1% that month. Instead, it fell by 0.1%.
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Now, there are many provisos. These monthly numbers are volatile at the best of times. And the JLR hack wasn’t the only thing going on with vehicle production in September. It so happens some van plants were also down that month.
Even so, even if you conservatively assume that only about half of the drop in output was due to the hack (which is a massively conservative assumption), the fact remains: hackers have caused a fall in official GDP figures, published only a few weeks ahead of the budget.
It is very rare – unheard of nearly – for a single company to be able to impact overall GDP numbers.
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Sept: Inside factory affected by Jaguar…
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