Monthly Economic Commentary: Jan 2017
Main points
Services industries accounted for almost all of the 0.6% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2016.
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.
Increased producer prices have started to feed into higher consumer prices for food and energy.
Employment growth flattened out in the 3 months to November 2016.
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.
