The economic clouds are gathering and the latest figures showing that Britain’s all-important services sector only managed to eke out growth last month will do little to lift confidence.

The task faced by the Bank of England and the new Prime Minister is huge with the country now at a "heightened risk of recession".

In fact, the S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI survey provided a worse than expected reading with only a backlog of work and a boost from the Commonwealth Games narrowly keeping the services sector in positive territory.

Sales growth in retail has also slowed as people start to tighten their belts due to the spiralling cost of living crisis.

The British Retail Consortium has called on the PM to relieve some of the cost burdens and ease pressure on prices by freezing the business rates multiplier.

Businesses across the board have been pleading for more support from the Government. Small businesses in particular are feeling the pain of rising energy bills as well as increasing supply chain costs.

The pound has also plunged, falling below its pandemic lows against the dollar after weeks of weakening, sending it to the lowest point in decades.

The drop will make imports more expensive for Britain due to much of global trade being transacted in dollars.

All eyes will be on Liz Truss’s Chancellor, widely expected to be Kwasi Kwarteng.

The Government has a lot of work to do to get a grip on an economy that has cast a shadow over the country.

Dark economic clouds hang over the country as services sector falters - The Yorkshire Post says