UK annual growth for 2015 takes a fall

UK economic growth for 2015 is 2.2%, down from 2014 when it stood at 2.9%, figures released by the Office for National Statistics today show.

Growth in the three months to the end of December was 0.5%. The annual pace of growth is the slowest for three years.

The figure is in line with a recent forecast by the International Monetary Fund which said the UK’s economy would growth at 2.2% in 2015, and for the next two years.

Chris Williamson from Markit tod the BBC:”The upturn masks an unbalanced economy and a slowing pace of expansion, with the annual rate of growth slipping to the weakest for almost three years.

“Uncertainty over ‘Brexit’, weak overseas growth and financial market volatility are all creating an unsettling business environment and point to downside risks to the economy in 2016.

“The coming year could easily see the pace of economic growth slow further from last year’s 2.2% expansion, and the chances are growing that we will see yet another year in which interest rates are left at their record low of 0.5%.”

Figures for November, released earlier this month, showed that UK industrial output had suffered its sharpest decline since 2013.