UK economic growth slower last year


The economy grew last year, but at a slower rate than 2016, preliminary figures suggest.


UK gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated to have increased by 1.8% between 2016 and 2017, slightly below the 1.9% growth seen between 2015 and 2016.


The 2017 figure is also well down on annual growth rates for the three years before that, which were 2.1% in 2013, 3.1% in 2014 and 2.3% in 2015.


The preliminary estimate for quarterly growth was 0.5% in the final quarter of 2017, compared with 0.4% in the third quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).


The dominant services sector, driven by business services and finance, increased by 0.6% compared with the previous quarter, although the longer-term trend continues to show a weakening in services growth.


Production industries grew by 0.6%, boosted by the second consecutive quarter of strong growth in manufacturing.


The 1.3% growth in manufacturing was partially offset in total production by a significant fall in oil and gas extraction, caused by repair work made to the Forties pipeline.


Construction contracted for the third quarter in a row, although annual growth between 2016 and 2017 was very strong at 5.1%, due to a strong start to 2017, the ONS said.


www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/grossdomesticproductpreliminaryestimate/octobertodecember2017