UK economy slowed to show 0.1% growth in third quarter, ONS says

[LONDON] Britain’s economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the July-to-September period of this year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Monday (Dec 22), in line with its initial estimate.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the reading for gross domestic product would be unrevised.

Growth in the second quarter was revised down to 0.2 per cent from a previous estimate of 0.3 per cent, the ONS said.

Last week the Bank of England said it expected zero GDP growth in the October-to-December period but it thought that the underlying pace of economic growth was around 0.2 per cent per quarter.

Monday’s data showed that Britain’s GDP in the third quarter was 1.3 per cent higher than a year ago – unchanged from the ONS’s initial estimate – while on a per capita basis, output was 0.9 per cent higher than the year before.

Britain’s current account deficit in the three months to the end of September totalled £12.1 billion, compared with a Reuters poll forecast of £21.1 billion and equivalent to 1.6 per cent of GDP, smaller than 2.8 per cent in the second quarter. REUTERS