British Economy Grew 0.4% in Q1 Says ONS

Britain’s economy grew at 0.4% in the first three months of the year, despite a slump in manufacturing and construction output that has dragged down GDP growth over the last year.

Tumbling business investment, which recorded its first annual fall in three years, also restricted growth and fuelled concerns that businesses are holding back on plans to expand ahead of the EU referendum.

Increases in business services and government spending, especially on the NHS, propped up growth in the first quarter, according to the second estimate of GDP by the Office for National Statistics.

The figures, which confirm an earlier estimate that growth slowed down from 0.6% in the last quarter of 2015, will be leapt on by the Treasury as another sign of the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit debate affecting business confidence and investment.

via The Guardian

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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