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UK Manufacturing Boosts Economy

• Posted by currencies in Bank of England, Bremain, Brexit, Budget, Currency, Dollar, Economy, EUR, Home, Mark Carney, Prime Minister, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• May 10, 2019
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Britain’s economy got a sharp one-off boost in the first three months of 2019, official figures showed this morning, as manufacturers rushed to deliver orders before a Brexit that never came.

Gross domestic product grew at a quarterly rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2019, in line with the reading expected by the Bank of England.

Year-on-year GDP growth picked up to 1.8 percent in early 2019 from 1.4 percent in the last three months of 2018, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said. This was its highest since the third quarter of 2017 and again in line with economists’ forecasts.

Last week BoE Governor Mark Carney said he expected growth to slow to 0.2 percent during the current quarter as the one-off boost from stock-building fades and businesses continue to hold off from investment as economic uncertainty lingers.

However, Friday’s ONS data unexpectedly showed a return to growth for business investment in the first three months of the year, after contracting for every quarter of 2018.

Britain’s economy has slowed since June 2016’s vote to leave the EU, with annual growth rates dropping from more than 2 percent before the referendum to expand by 1.4 percent last year.

The euro zone’s economy expanded by 0.4 percent in the three months to March, rebounding from a patch of sluggish growth in the second half of 2018 caused by global trade tensions and regulatory problems for the auto industry.