2018.02.2207:14:00UTC+00UK GDP Grows Less Than Estimate In Q4

The UK economy grew less-than-estimated in the fourth quarter, largely due to a downward revision to production output.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.4 percent sequentially instead of 0.5 percent reported initially, the second estimate from the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday. GDP had advanced 0.5 percent in the third quarter.

Year-on-year, the economy expanded 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the initial estimate of 1.5 percent.

The annual growth for the whole year of 2017 was revised down to 1.7 percent, the weakest since 2012, from 1.8 percent.

On the production-side, the dominant-services sector advanced 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter.

"Services continued to drive growth at the end of 2017, but with a number of consumer-facing industries slowing, as price rises led to household budgets being squeezed," Darren Morgan, head of GDP at the ONS, said.

Production output rose 0.5 percent, which was revised down by 0.1 percentage point from the preliminary estimate.

Meanwhile, construction output shrank 0.7 percent, revised upwards from negative 1 percent. This was the third consecutive quarter of contraction. Agriculture output contracted 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

The expenditure-side breakdown of GDP showed that household consumption and investment were the main drivers of growth. Household spending gained 0.3 percent and government spending advanced 0.6 percent.

Further, data showed that gross fixed capital formation climbed 1.1 percent to GBP 84 billion in the fourth quarter. At the same time, business investment that make up the largest proportion of gross fixed capital formation, remained broadly unchanged from the third quarter.

The net trade deficit widened to GBP 12.23 billion in volume terms from GBP 9.66 billion in the third quarter.

With inflation starting to ease off and global economic growth robust, both household spending and net trade will provide greater support ahead, Andrew Wishart, an economist at Capital Economics, said.