Economic growth hit by Brexit uncertainty

BY DAVID CRAIK THE Government suffered another huge pre-Brexit blow yesterday when it was revealed that the UK economy has slumped to last place in the G7.

The Office for National Statistics reported that they had revised UK gross domestic product growth to 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017, down from previous estimates of 0.5 per cent.

The year-on-year economic growth of 1.4 per cent in the last three months was not just the UK’s worst performance in five years, but means it is also now the weakest of any of the economies in the powerhouse Group of Seven. That includes traditional slowcoaches such as Japan and Italy.

Wage and price pressures on consumers contributed to the drop. The ONS said household spending grew by 1.8 per cent between 2016 and 2017, its slowest rate of annual growth since 2012. Business investment was also flat.

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

Compounding the grim news was the latest CBI Quarterly Distributive Trades Survey, which revealed that retail sales growth had slowed for the third month in a row, with sales slumping in clothing, department stores and furniture.

Samuel Tombs, of Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the data may make the Bank of England think twice about an interest rate hike.

“The economy remains fragile and does not need to be cooled with another rate rise,” he said.

Jacob Deppe, head of trading at online platform Infinox commented: “Any domestic-led growth is likely to be held in check by the continuing lack of clarity over Brexit.” down 29.1 at 7252.3 Ferguson GKN GlaxoSmithKline Halfords Hays HSBC Imperial Brands International Airlines Grp ITV Kingfisher Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Marks & Spencer Morrison National Grid Next Old Mutual Pearson Prudential 5286.0 425.0 1303.0 346.6 195.4 728.1 2609.5 622.6 170.9 353.6 937.3 260.2 69.2 297.6 223.1 751.0 4950.0 252.5 704.8 1843.5 +12.0 +2.7 +1.4 +5.0 -9.2 -19.2 +3.0 +5.8 -1.4 -7.0 +4.2 -0.4 -0.5 -1.0 +1.2 +4.4 -33.0 -0.2 +3.4 -9.5 Oil = $66.47 Shares in airline Flybe flew 32 per cent higher yesterday after transpor giants Stobart Group sai they were eyeing up a takeo bid. Stobart, owners of Lon Southend Airport since 20 confirmed interest but add that it was too early to sa whether a proposal will be made. Reckitt Benckiser 5869.0 RELX 1518.0 Rentokil Initial 293.4 Rio Tinto 4023.0 Rolls-Royce 839.6 Royal Mail 562.0 RSA 632.6 RBS 282.0 J Sainsbury 255.1 SSE 1236.0 Severn Trent 1710.0 Serco 93.1 Sports Direct 376.6 Shell 2291.5 Sky 1098.0 Smith & Nephew 1270.0 Smiths WH 2060.0 Stagecoach 137.8 Standard Chartered 830.0 Standard Life Aberdeen 385.7 TalkTalk 97.7 0.0 -4.5 -2.0 +7.0 -4.2 -1.0 +19.6 +4.6 -0.2 +16.5 -4.5 +2.1 +0.8 +8.0 -2.0 -2.0 -4.0 +4.6 -1.4 +4.7 +3.2 BARCLAYS’ top dogs are in the money, despite a profits slump.

Boss Jes Staley, above, was paid £3.9million in 2017 with 369 employees earning more than £1million and 11 taking home pay deals over £5million. But the bank suffered a loss of £1.9billion compared to a £1.6billion profit in 2016 after they were battered by a £700million PPI bill and a £127million charge related to loans given to collapsed firm Carillion.