UK Growth Highest For Four Years
- News
- Published: 23 Jul 2010 in Money and General
The UK economy grew at its fastest rate for more than four years between April and June, according to official estimates.
The advance of 1.1% was nearly twice as high as City analysts had predicted and was the best quarter of growth since the first quarter of 2006, the Office for National Statistics said.
Year-on-year growth was even stronger, with a rise of 1.6% for the period from April to June, the best showing since the start of 2008.
The performance of the services sector and construction industry drove the strong figures, but experts remained cautious about the outlook for the economy.
Output remains 4% lower than before the recession and swingeing cuts announced in Chancellor George Osborne's emergency Budget are still to take effect, warned Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at research consultancy Capital Economics.
"With recent business surveys weakening and the fiscal squeeze looming, Q2 looks very likely to be the peak in terms of the pace of growth - expect a much weaker second half," he said.