Economic growth revised down

The UK economy grew less strongly in the first quarter of 2017 than had been initially estimated.

The Office for National Statistics now estimates the economy grew 0.2%, having revised it down by 0.1 percentage points.

It attributed the change mainly “to broad-based downward revisions within the services sector”.

Although the economy has now grown for 17 consecutive quarters, this is the lowest growth for a year, and significantly behind the revised estimate of 0.7% achieved in the final quarter of 2016.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: “The economy got off to an even worse start to the year than previously thought, according to fresh official data. There’s a strong likelihood that growth will pick up in the second quarter, but whether robust growth can be sustained further ahead remains highly uncertain.

“It’s hard to see any bright spots in the breakdown of the data with the sole exception of business services & finance, which grew 0.6%. The broader service sector, which has been the mainstay of growth in recent years, grew just 0.2%.”