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LONDON – The United Kingdom’s gross domestic product grew 0.2% in January, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, as construction output rose unexpectedly.
The headline figure was in line with the forecast of economists polled by Reuters.
This follows a 0.1% decline in December as the UK economy entered a shallow recession in the second half of last year.
According to the ONS, construction production rose 1.1% in January but fell 0.9% over the three-month period. The services sector grew by 0.2% in January and was the largest contributor to growth as manufacturing output fell by 0.2%.
Jack Meaning, chief UK economist at Barclays, described the figures as “not a particularly positive picture, but they are above where we were at the end of last year”.
“The industrial and manufacturing sectors have been weak in recent releases, you would expect some recovery from that in the end,” Meaning told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.
“It’s nice to see, but we need to see it over a longer period of time to know it’s something permanent.”
The British pound stayed flat against the U.S. dollar and that Euro after release.
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2024-03-13 07:44:18
www.cnbc.com
