UK economic growth slowed to its lowest since the lockdown-hit start of the year, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Gross domestic product grew 0.1% in July, the weakest since January, with GDP 2.1% below its pre-pandemic peak.
The services sector was flat, industrial production grew 1.2% but still 2.1% below peak, while construction fell 1.6%.
The surge in Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in July was largely to blame for the stagnation of GDP, said economist Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"Encouragingly, most real-time indicators we track have picked up since. But the MPC's forecast for 3% q/q growth in Q3 and Q4 now is out of reach - markets' faith in a Q2 2022 rate hike is misplaced," he said in a tweet.