UK Grows By 0.8 Percent in First Quarter

The UK economy grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2014, according to the latest figures.

It marks the fifth consecutive period of GDP growth – the longest positive run since the financial crisis.

Gross domestic product is a measure of a country’s economic activity, including all the goods and services produced in a given period.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said the economy is now 0.6% smaller than its 2008 peak.

Chancellor George Osborne said Tuesday’s figure showed that “Britain is coming back”, but that the recovery could not be taken for granted.

“The impact of the Great Recession is still being felt, but the foundations for a broad based recovery are now in place,” he added.

“The biggest risk to economic security would be abandoning the plan that is laying those foundations.”

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that despite the positive growth figure, “millions of hardworking people are still feeling no recovery at all”.

“Now that growth has finally returned, the question is whether ordinary working people will properly feel the benefit and we have a balanced recovery that’s built to last,” he added.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza