a man wearing a face mask walks along the river mersey with the liverpool skyline amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease covid19 in seacombe britain october 12 2020 reutersphil noble london june 13 reuters  britains economy unexpectedly shrank by a monthly 03 in april official figures showed on monday adding to fears of a slowdown three days before the bank of england announces the scale of its latest interest rate response to the surge in inflation economists polled by reuters had on average expected gross domestic product gdp to grow by 01 in april from march the office for national statistics said the data represented the first time that all main economic sectors had contributed negatively to a monthly gdp estimate since january 2021 however gdp would have grown by 01 excluding the impact of a scaling back of the government coronavirus testandtrace and vaccination programmes the ons said over the three months to april gdp was up by 02 slowing sharply from growth of 08 in the three months to march the reuters poll had pointed to 04 growth in the februaryapril period some economists said before mondays data they had expected aprils jump in domestic power tariffs and an increase in taxes paid by workers introduced during the month to impact the monthly gdp data only in may