UK Q3 Growth Confirmed At 0.5%

That was unchanged from the initial ONS estimate and followed second-quarter growth of 0.7 percent.

Britain’s economy slowed in the three months to September, official data confirmed today, as trade posed the biggest drag on quarterly growth on record against the backdrop of a slowing global economy.

Exports increased by 0.9% while imports grew by 5.5%.

Most economists expect the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to raise interest rates next year or in 2017.

GDP per head in volume terms rose 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, while it rose 2.2% year-on-year between 2013 and 2014.

Among main output industrial groupings, production output gained 0.2%, which was revised down from 0.3%.

“The latest growth figures from the United Kingdom economy have told us a very familiar story; private consumption and government spending are making up for a very poor trade outlook”, said Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First. The data marks 11 consecutive months of positive growth in the United Kingdom, and its longest stretch of growth since the 2009 financial crisis, ONS said, in a statement accompanying the GDP figures.

Scott Bowman, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “The second estimate of Q3 GDP showed that growth in the UK continues to be unbalanced”.

“We expect gross domestic product growth to come in at 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter, resulting in overall gross domestic product growth of 2.4 per cent in 2015”.