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British preliminary GDP growth rises 0.5 pct in Q4

Xinhua, January 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

British gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.5 percent in the three months to end of December 2015 compared with previous quarter, according to the preliminary estimate that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published on Thursday.

The four main industrial groupings had become divided in the fourth quarter last year. Services industries increased by 0.7 percent and agriculture output rose by 0.6 percent. In contrast, production output decreased by 0.2 percent and construction output shrank by 0.1 percent.

Compared with the same quarter a year ago, British GDP increased by 1.9 percent, the first time it has been below 2 percent since the start of 2013.

"The recovery still looks very unbalanced then. And the economy faces a number of headwinds this year, including more austerity and potentially the EU referendum. So we doubt that we will see a strong pick-up in growth this year," Chief UK economist of Capital Economics Vicky Redwood commented.

GDP in 2015 as a whole rose by 2.2 percent on 2014. The annual pace of growth may be the slowest for three years but still puts the British economy among the fastest growing among the developed countries. Endit