UK economic growth confirmed at 0.5pc
Britain’s economy grew by a disappointing 0.5 per cent in the first three months of the year, official data confirmed, after an unrevised contraction of 0.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2010.
There was an upward revision to first-quarter construction output, but this was cancelled out by a downward revision to manufacturing.
Household consumption fell by 0.6 per cent, its biggest fall since the depths of the recession in 2009.
Analysts had not expected any revision to the headline growth figure, so the data is unlikely to alter the view that the Bank of England will keep interest rates at a record low for the rest of this year due to the weakness of the recovery.
There was a small downward revision to the year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter to 1.6 per cent from 1.8 percent. This reflected a small downward revision to growth in the third quarter of 2010.
The Office for National Statistics also released first-quarter current account data, which showed that Britain’s deficit with the rest of the world narrowed to £9.354bn from an upwardly revised £12.956bn in the fourth quarter of 2010.
This was the smallest deficit since the fourth quarter of 2009 but was still double what economists had forecast.