UK GDP grew by 0.3% in the three months to August 2019. Developing…
Commenting on today’s GDP figures, the ONS’ Head of GDP Rob Kent-Smith said:
“Growth increased in the latest three months, despite a weak performance across manufacturing, with TV and film production helping to boost the services sector.”
The ONS has released its latest GDP figures and the UK is up at a healthy 0.5% growth for Q1. Business investment was also up 0.5% q/q, while manufacturing growth surged to the highest in three decades at 2.2%. The Eurozone could only manage 0.4% GDP growth…
Once again the UK posted stronger-than-forecast first quarter GDP after consensus economists were once again surprised by stronger than expected gains.
GDP gained 0.2% from January, when it jumped 0.5%, economists had expected output to flat-line. The pickup in February was broad based, with manufacturing rising 0.9% and construction gaining 0.4%. Good luck to remainers attibuting the rise in construction to “stockpiling”…
The trade deficit narrowed marginally in February. Exports rose and there was little evidence in the data of firms supposedly hoarding foreign goods in case of a no-deal Brexit, with imports falling in both value and volume terms. Pharma was an exception – suggesting there will be no interruption in supplies in the event of a no deal exit.
GDP grew at the fastest rate since 2017. Despite Brexit!
It’s not just the Germany economy which is being hit by a serious slump, France is stuck in a rut of its own with the latest economic data showing yet another contraction. After a very slight recovery in February, France’s composite PMI for this month has fallen back down below the 50 level, which indicates growth, to 48.7, following contractions in December and January as well. No wonder Macron’s no deal bluster didn’t survive the night yesterday – if May had actually stuck to her no deal promise the UK’s position would only be getting stronger now…
The ONS has released its first estimate of GDP growth for 2018 Q4 at 0.2%, giving an initial figure of 1.3% growth for the year. A far cry from the recession that the Treasury, Bank of England and IMF were all predicting before the referendum…
Growth is sluggish across Europe, particularly in Italy and Germany – the UK is still comfortably in the middle of the road, with the European Commission itself putting the UK on a par with France and the Eurozone average for its 2019 forecast. If steady growth in the UK is all Brexit’s fault, what’s the EU’s excuse?
The UK economy continues to steadily grow, with the ONS’ latest growth figures showing GDP growth of 0.4% in the three months to October. This is a solid showing for the first set of growth data not to include July’s hot weather and World Cup-fuelled boost. Almost two-and-a-half years on and Project Fear 1.0 is still yet to materialise…
