The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed United Kingdom growth at 0.7pc in the second quarter of the year compared with the previous three months, but in a series of revisions said the United Kingdom was 5.9pc larger than its pre-crisis size in the second quarter, from a previous estimate of 5.2pc.
Advertisement
The Q2 current account balance was -£16.767bn, against an expected -£22.3bn and from -£26.5bn previously.
Analysts also said the data will give a welcome boost to Chancellor George Osborne ahead of his spending review and autumn statement in November.
The United Kingdom economy grew less than expected in the second quarter, data released on Wednesday showed.
But the annual growth figure for the second quarter was revised down from 2.6% to 2.4%.
“But we still face risks from the global economy so we should continue working through our long-term plan to build a resilient economy”.
“It is an extremely tight call as to whether the Bank of England lifts interest rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent around February, or holds fire until nearer mid-2016”, said Howard Archer, chief European and United Kingdom economist at IHS.
“With manufacturing output slowing this is not the perfectly balanced recovery hoped for by policymakers”.
But global uncertainty sparked by the recent slowdown of the Chinese economy, may impact United Kingdom growth prospects.
Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser at PwC, said: “Looking back over the recovery more broadly, upward revisions to GDP in earlier years mean that growth has averaged just over 2 per cent in the six years since the economy started growing again in mid-2009”.
Advertisement
‘It is also important not to take risks with our economic growth prospects, so the MPC must persevere with low interest rates until well into 2016’.
