Deloitte’s chief economist GDP figures comment

Commenting on the latest GDP figures, published this morning by the Office for National Statistics, Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, the business advisory firm, said:

“The UK’s performance has been rather better than the gloomy talk would suggest. Growth has come in stronger than expected a year ago and the pace of activity has edged up since July.

“A year ago the near-universal view was that unemployment would rise in 2017; instead it has fallen by 150,000 and the jobless rate is at a 42 year low.

“A whopping sterling devaluation certainly has squeezed spending power and incomes, just as you’d expect, but it’s also helped reboot manufacturing output.

“Overall, growth has slowed modestly, not collapsed. Talk of an end to UK growth has been somewhat exaggerated.”

End

Notes to editors

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