Productivity in Britain contracted at the fastest annual pace in five years during the second quarter, according to official data that underline a persistent weak spot in the economy.

Office for National Statistics said, output per hour worked fell 0.5% year-on-year in the April to June period after stagnating in the first three months of 2019, the biggest drop since the second quarter of 2014. It fell 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, extending a 0.5% quarterly drop seen in early 2019.

Both services and manufacturing saw a fall in labour productivity growth of 0.8% and 1.9% respectively, compared with the same quarter in the previous year.

There was no growth in output per job in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019 compared with the same quarter in the previous year, as both gross value added (GVA) and the number of jobs grew by 1.3% over the same period.