Left behind by the eurozone
UK’s poor start to 2018 ‘is not a blip’
BRITAIN’S economy will lag behind Europe’s again this year, a thinktank has warned.
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research slashed their UK growth forecast from 1.9 per cent to 1.4 per cent.
They think the eurozone will expand by 1.9 per cent and the global economy overall will soar 3.9 per cent, led by India and China. The UK downgrade is mostly due to the growth of 0.1 per cent from January to March.
The NIESR reckon the economy will pick up to match the eurozone’s 1.7 per cent next year.
But there are concerns the go-slow could continue into the second quarter of 2018 after figures yesterday revealed weak growth in the service sector last month. The survey from number crunchers IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply covers banks through to restaurants, but not shops.
Economists think weak data will deter the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from raising the base rate from 0.5 per cent next week.
Samuel Tombs, of Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “Following today’s data, nobody can have strong conviction that the economy’s first-quarter slowdown was just a blip.”
Paul Hollingsworth, of Capital Economics, said the service sector data would add to fears that the economy has “suffered a loss of underlying momentum”. down 40.5 at 7502.7 GKN GlaxoSmithKline Halfords Hays HSBC Imperial Brands International Airlines Grp ITV Kingfisher Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Marks & Spencer National Grid Next Old Mutual Pearson Prudential Reckitt Benckiser RELX 470.0 1452.6 376.6 181.0 721.3 2595.0 640.6 150.1 278.8 982.8 273.3 64.7 285.3 845.8 5180.0 249.8 830.0 1883.5 5560.0 1556.0 -1.6 -7.4 +0.2 -1.0 -8.5 -17.0 -7.8 -1.4 -4.3 +1.1 0.0 +0.3 -0.5 +0.8 -20.0 -3.2 -3.8 -4.5 -60.0 -5.0 Oil = $73.38 INSURANCE giant esure have laid bare the cost of the “Beast from the East”, with the insurer taking an £8million hit linked to the weather in March. The group saw claims costs in their home division rocket £6m ahead of forecasts. But bosses said they remain on track to meet financial targets for 2018. Rentokil Initial 314.6 Rio Tinto 4000.0 Rolls-Royce 830.0 Royal Mail 593.4 RSA 640.0 RBS 268.5 J Sainsbury 302.0 SSE 1386.0 Severn Trent 2010.0 Serco 99.0 Sports Direct 405.2 Shell 2615.0 Sky 1366.0 Smith & Nephew 1302.5 Smiths WH 1949.0 Stagecoach 155.2 Standard Chartered 742.4 Standard Life Aberdeen..367.7 TalkTalk 132.8 Taylor Wimpey 192.9 +1.4 -29.0 -6.8 +4.8 -9.6 -4.0 -3.0 -6.0 +2.0 +0.4 +1.3 +7.5 -7.0 -98.0 +5.0 -0.7 -19.0 +0.6 -2.2 +2.2 Tesco Thomas Cook Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Trinity Mirror 239.1 133.5 3955.0 770.0 209.0 85.5 +2.5 +1.9 -11.6 +7.4 -3.7 -1.0