Britain unexpectedly failed to grow in July, after stagnating in June, official data showed.
Analysts had expected slight growth of 0.2%.
Summer sports, including the European Championships, helped boost the services sector, which includes retail and hospitality, but manufacturing and construction saw a decline.
The lack of growth for two months is a challenge for the new Labor government, which has made boosting the economy a priority.
Despite the weak growth, Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, said “the long-term strength of the services sector means there has been growth over the last three months overall.”
Services sector growth was led by computer programmers and the health sector, which recovered from a strike in June, but there were declines in advertising, architecture and engineering production, McKeown added.
GDP, or gross domestic product, is closely watched as an indicator of how well the economy is performing.
However, these figures are only preliminary estimates and are often revised slightly as more data becomes available.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she was “under no illusions” about the scale of the challenge.
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