UK GDP Growth Slows As Estimated

(RTTNews) - The UK economy grew at a slower pace in the second quarter as increases in services and construction were partially offset by the contraction in production, the Office for National Statistics reported Tuesday.

Real gross domestic product expanded by an unrevised 0.3 percent in the second quarter, following a quarterly growth of 0.7 percent in the first quarter.

The dominant service sector grew 0.4 percent and construction output advanced 1.0 percent. Partially offsetting these gains, production fell 0.8 percent.

The expenditure-side of GDP showed that government spending and gross fixed capital formation contributed to the quarterly growth. Real household spending rose only 0.1 percent from a quarter ago. Government consumption grew 1.3 percent due to higher expenditure on health and public administration.

Gross fixed capital formation showed a growth of 0.5 percent. Within this, business investment fell 1.1 percent.

In the second quarter, real GDP was 1.4 percent higher than in the same period last year, data showed.

Real annual GDP in 2024 advanced 1.1 percent, which was unrevised from the previous estimate.

Another report from the ONS showed that the underlying current account deficit, excluding precious metals, widened to GBP 23.8 billion or 3.2 percent of GDP, in the second quarter.