LONDON, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- British economic growth moved up a notch in the third quarter, rising to 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter growth from the 0.3 percent seen in the second quarter, according to the official preliminary estimate.
The 0.4 percent quarterly rise seen in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures released on Wednesday was stronger than both the Bank of England's (BOE) and consensus forecast of 0.3 percent.
Growth is below its long-run average rate of 0.6 percent, with construction output falling, by 0.7 percent on the quarter, tipping the sector into technical recession following the same size of fall in the second quarter.
However, the manufacturing sector recorded a strong 1.0 percent quarterly rise, and growth in the consumer-facing sectors is holding up well despite the squeeze in pay workers are feeling as rising inflation bites.
The retail sector was one of the main drivers of the 0.4 percent quarterly growth in the services sector.
Within the quarterly figures, both the industrial production and services sectors finished the quarter strongly, indicating continued steady GDP growth in the year's final quarter.
Dr Howard Archer, chief UK economist with EY Item, an economic forecasting group in London told Xinhua: "It is an economy struggling to get out of the slow lane."
"Brexit uncertainty has played its part in the muffled economic performance," he added.
Archer said that the fall in sterling against other currencies last year in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum vote on June 23 had fuelled inflation.
The latest figures last week showed inflation in September was 3 percent, pushed sharply up as import costs and raw material costs rose as a result sterling's fall.
"Brexit can take some of the blame," said Archer, "It has taken time for that fall to feed through in the form of inflation which is one of the reasons why the economy held up reasonably well in the aftermath of the Brexit vote because nothing had changed for consumers."
"But over time, sterling's weakness has fed through to inflation has squeezed consumers."
Archer said that the small increase in the rate of GDP growth had "not changed anything much".
He added: "if you take the three quarters together you still have very lackluster growth in the first three quarters.
The pickup was very much due to the manufacturing sector, said Archer, who noted that the hard data from the ONS was now matching the softer survey data from business organizations which had been pointing to strong growth in the manufacturing sector for most of the year.
"The improved performance of the manufacturing sector was more in line with survey evidence, with that evidence this year stronger than the hard data," said Archer.
He added: "The latest data, the CBI data that came out earlier this week, indicate that the manufacturing sector could be faltering again, which reinforces my belief that we have not seen the step change in economic performance. It could be 0.3 percent growth in the fourth quarter."
A single purchase
