The U.K. economy grew more than the prior estimate in the fourth quarter, according to the latest report released Tuesday.
Gross domestic product grew 0.6 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter, revised up from 0.5 percent published on February 26, the Office for National Statistics said. The growth was thus unchanged from the 0.6 percent expansion seen in the third quarter.
Similarly, the annual growth for the fourth quarter was revised to 3 percent from 2.7 percent. The growth rate accelerated from 2.8 percent in the prior quarter.
On the production side, services output growth was revised up to 0.9 percent from 0.8 percent. Likewise, production output grew 0.2 percent sequentially, faster than 0.1 percentage estimated previously.
Construction output fell 2.2 percent, revised down by 0.1 percentage points from prior estimate.
In the whole year of 2014, GDP was up 2.8 percent compared to the prior estimate of 2.6 percent.
Another report from the ONS showed that the current account deficit narrowed to GBP 25.3 billion in the fourth quarter form GBP 27.7 billion in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, business investment declined 0.9 percent to GBP 45 billion compared with the prior quarter.
However, the annual level for 2014 was the highest in the published time series. It grew by 7.5 percent to GBP 179.7 billion.
The ONS said the index of services increased 3.2 percent on a yearly basis in January as all main components of the services industries increased from a year ago. But the index fell 0.2 percent on a monthly basis.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com