UK economy performance figures worse than reported

The performance of the UK economy was less than recent official reports predicted.

Analysts have trimmed the UK economic growth quarterly figure for July to September by 0.1 per cent taking the Gross Domestic Product for the period from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

The annual figure has also been downwardly revised by 0.1 per cent to 2.1 per cent, taking the figure even further from the Treasury target of between 2.25 – 2.75 per cent.

While many analysts feared that the figures would be far worse, there is still concern about the massive imbalance between the manufacturing and service sectors of the UK economy.

Although this revision of the statistics is not viewed as positive for the UK’s economic outlook, in balance the figures indicate that the UK is continuing to perform well when compared to its European counterparts. Figures released on Thursday showed that the German economy was entering recession and had shrunk by 0.1 per cent.

The US and Japan are also continuing to have economic problems. According to the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation the current forecasts indicate that the US economy would expand by around 0.7 per cent next year and Japanese economy would shrink by 1 per cent. (SP)