Forex Pros – The U.K. economy grew in line with market expectations in the first quarter of 2011, unrevised from the growth previously published, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product rose in line with expectations at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.5% during the first quarter, unchanged from a preliminary estimate.
Annualized GDP rose at a rate of 1.8%, broadly in line with expectations and unchanged from a preliminary estimate.
Output of the production industries was revised down to 0.2% in the latest quarter. Within production, manufacturing output increased by 1.1%, offset by utilities output which fell by 3.4% and mining and quarrying output which fell by 1.4%.
Construction output fell by 4.0%, revised up from a fall of 4.7%. This compares with a fall of 2.3% in the previous quarter.
Household expenditure fell 0.6% and is now 0.3% lower than the first quarter of 2010.
Following the release of that data, the pound was down against the U.S. dollar, with GBP/USD shedding 0.18% to hit 1.6151.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were down. The FTSE 100 fell 0.22%, the EURO STOXX 50 declined 0.25%, France’s CAC 40 slumped 0.26%, and Germany’s DAX dipped 0.5%.
ForexPros.com
