News

11 Feb 2019

UK economy growing at its slowest rate since 2012

The UK economy expanded at its slowest annual rate in six years in 2018 after a sharp contraction in December.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that growth in the year was 1.4%, down from 1.8% in 2017 and the slowest rate since 2012, blaming falls in factory output and car production for the slowdown.

It follows forecasts of slower growth in 2019 due to Brexit uncertainty and a weaker global economy.

Head of GDP at the ONS, Rob Kent-Smith said, "GDP slowed in the last three months of the year with the manufacturing of cars and steel products seeing steep falls and construction also declining.

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"However, services continued to grow with the health sector, management consultants and IT all doing well."

Although a slowdown was expected, it seems that the economy has hit the brakes harder than economists thought it would.

Growth over the last quarter of 2018 was weaker than the 0.3% anticipated, and over the month the numbers look positively worrying. According to the ONS estimates, gross domestic product fell in December by 0.4%.

That included a drop in services activity (restaurants and retail etc), which is estimated to have fallen by 0.2% on the month.

This is the only time since 2012 that services, construction and production all fell.

While that chimes in with the gloomy picture painted by some retailers company results for example, it\'s not by any means a certain sign of another recession.

This is only the first estimate by the ONS; the figures are provisional and are often revised when the second and third, more accurate figures arrive.

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