Economic growth revised upwards


The UK economy performed better than previously thought at the end of 2016.


The second official estimate for growth in gross domestic product (GDP) puts growth at 0.7% — rather than the previous estimate of 0.6% — in the final quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter.


Darren Morgan, a spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “The economy grew slightly more in the last three months of 2016 than previously thought, mainly due to a stronger performance from manufacturing. 


“Overall, the dominant services sector continued to grow steadily, due in part to continued growth in consumer spending, although retail showed some signs of weakness in the last couple of months of 2016, which has continued into January 2017.”


In the final quarter of 2016, manufacturing output expanded by 1.2%, not the 0.7% previously thought. However, the main reason for the large revision upwards was the late arrival of information.


Despite the increase in manufacturing, production output was only posted quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.2% as there was a 7.0% contraction in oil and gas and mining.


Service sector growth was unchanged on the previous estimate of 0.8%.


The economy grew by 2.0% in the final quarter of 2016 compared with the same quarter a year earlier.


Nevertheless, the ONS has downgraded annual growth in GDP. It now says that last year the economy grew by 1.8% compared with previous year, a revision down from the previous 2.0% estimate.


https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/secondestimateofgdp/quarter4octtodec2016