UK Economy Logs Marginal Growth

(RTTNews) - The UK economy logged only a marginal growth in third quarter as the cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover hit production, official data revealed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent sequentially, following the prior quarter's 0.3 percent expansion, the Office for National Statistics reported Thursday. Output was expected to advance 0.2 percent.

On a yearly basis, the economy logged a growth of 1.3 percent in the third quarter, in line with expectations.

Data showed that growth was driven by increases of 0.2 percent in services and 0.1 percent expansion in construction. By contrast, production output was down 0.5 percent.

Month-on-month, GDP fell 0.1 percent following no growth in August. Economists had expected GDP to remain flat again in September.

Production fell 2.0 percent in September, largely because of a fall in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers. On the other hand, services and construction climbed 0.2 percent each.

"With a backdrop of weak business and investment confidence, sluggish Q3 growth of just 0.1% is unsurprising," British Chambers of Commerce Research Manager Stuart Morrison said.

Morrison observed that the cyber-attack on JLR hit manufacturing badly and made a mediocre performance worse.

"The latest data underline how fragile the recovery remains, with the economy close to flatlining," CBI Lead Economist Ben Jones said.

"Weak activity and waning confidence ahead of the Budget are clear warning signs that the government's growth mission is faltering," Jones added.

Another report from the ONS showed that the visible trade deficit narrowed to GBP 18.89 billion from GBP 19.53 billion in August. The total trade gap was GBP 1.09 billion compared to a GBP 1.27 billion shortfall in the prior month.