Monthly Economic Commentary: Jan 2017
Main points
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Services industries accounted for almost all of the 0.6% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2016.
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The construction industry was more subdued, with a 0.1% increase in Quarter 4 2016 following a 0.8% fall in the previous quarter and production output was flat in the quarter.
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Increased producer prices have started to feed into higher consumer prices for food and energy.
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Employment growth flattened out in the 3 months to November 2016.
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The productivity puzzle shows little sign of ending; labour productivity measured by output per hour grew by 0.4% in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2016 – still lower than the pre-downturn (1994 to 2007) quarterly average growth rate of 0.5%.
Statistician’s comment
Commenting on today’s GDP figures, ONS Head of GDP Darren Morgan said:
“The initial ONS data show the economy ended 2016 with steady growth of 0.6% for the third consecutive quarter.
“Strong consumer spending supported the expansion of the dominant services sector and although manufacturing bounced back from a weaker third quarter, both it and construction remained broadly unchanged over the year as a whole.”
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.1.0.
