party has been been blocking its participation over the brexit trade border with the uk. senior civil servants are in effect running northern ireland at the westminster government has been setting budgets for northern ireland in the absence of local ministers. of local ministers. thank you for the update- the latest gdp figures have just come out. nina s here with the latest. good morning. this is something we look at every month, the overall value reflected what we make or do. interesting this month, this is looking at the month of october, during that period the economy grew by 0.5%. on the face of it, good news. it s partly because we compare that with september which was the month that the queen died so economic activity slowed down significantly. if you put it in the context of the three months up to october, overthe context of the three months up to october, over the period the economy 0ctober, over the period the economy contracted by 0.3%. it s the time